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Synonyms

cleaning

American  
[klee-ning] / ˈkli nɪŋ /

noun

  1. an act or instance of making clean.

    Give the house a good cleaning.

  2. Slang. an overwhelming or complete defeat, financial loss, or failure.

    Our team took a cleaning in yesterday's game.

  3. Informal. killing.

Other Word Forms

  • self-cleaning adjective

Etymology

Origin of cleaning

First recorded in 1655–75; clean + -ing 1

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Most Silicon Valley companies at the time lavished their top engineering talent with free lunches, on-site dry cleaning, nap pods and other luxury amenities.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 4, 2026

Meanwhile the pipeline stocks the fund does own have been busy paying down debt and cleaning up their own financial profiles.

From Barron's • Apr. 3, 2026

Rather than immediately cleaning the fossils, he inspected them closely.

From Science Daily • Apr. 3, 2026

Boyle highlighted that Wunderbar already pays for street cleaning and lighting outside its venues, questioning what it got in return for the high taxes.

From BBC • Apr. 1, 2026

“This? It isn’t that bad. When people stay at hotels or motels, they know there will be cleaning services.”

From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.