adverb
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in a fair manner
-
easily or smoothly
the screw went into the wood cleanly
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cleanly
before 900; Middle English clenlich ( e ), Old English clǣnlīc, equivalent to clǣne clean + -līc -ly
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.
See Examples For:
This is not a win we get to keep cleanly.
From Salon ● Nov. 5, 2026
Two red flags during final practice had led some teams to have private sweepstakes as to how many stoppages there would be in qualifying, but the session ran cleanly, with no incidents.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
“Pulling in the language from the posting shows recruiters and hiring managers you’re a genuine fit for the role — and helps your resume read cleanly to an applicant-tracking system along the way.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
Many environmental groups have long been skeptical even of the 1% of hydrogen that is produced cleanly — called green hydrogen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
He cut a piece of line and tied the fish’s lower jaw against his bill so his mouth would not open and they would sail as cleanly as possible.
From "The Old Man and The Sea" by Ernest Hemingway
Nature would do that cleanlier; and waxwork more powerfully!
From Earthwork out of Tuscany Being Impressions and Translations of Maurice Hewlett by Maurice Henry Hewlett
Under the painful surface-blur of wretchedness and fatigued debauchery, she traced reflectively the lineaments of the younger and cleanlier countenance she had seen a few months before.
From The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic
The little inn was cleanlier and better kept than many of the more pretentious ones.
From British Highways And Byways From A Motor Car Being A Record Of A Five Thousand Mile Tour In England, Wales And Scotland by Thomas Dowler Murphy
It has a higher back than the domestic hog, and cleanlier habits; an odoriferous gland on the loins, and three-toed hind feet.
From The Andes and the Amazon Across the Continent of South America by James Orton
Sir, I Had rather like the first best; not onely because it is cleanlier, but because it reflects least upon the other party, which, in all jest and earnest, in this affair, I wish avoided.
From Letters to Severall Persons of Honour by John Donne
The gentle Maldivians are among Asia's best-fed, cleanliest and healthiest people.
From Time Magazine Archive
Their cleanliest monthly average is 54 tons of dirt to the square mile.
From Time Magazine Archive
And yet the Bulgarians, in these miserable cottages, are the cleanliest people in the world.
From History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume II. by Rufus Anderson
She, that was the cleanliest creature in the world, never shrank now if you set a close-stool under her nose.
From History of John Bull by John Arbuthnot
Their churches and chapels are the best built, the finest adorned, and the cleanliest kept, of any churches in the world.
From Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe, Wife of Sir Richard Fanshawe, bart., ambassador from Charles the Second to the courts of Portugal and Madrid. by Lady Anne Harrison Fanshawe
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