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:
It maps on pretty cleanly because a lot of the cases that people really like involve the court enforcing federal legislation.
From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2026
Sharia-compliant funds make the point even more cleanly.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026
In a first-of-its-kind large-scale study, scientists created giant fire whirls, spinning columns of flame that resemble fire tornadoes, and found they burn oil faster and more cleanly than conventional methods.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 5, 2026
His motives couldn’t be more cleanly illustrated by a PowerPoint presentation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026
As he came to the opening he brought her downwind a bit, let the sails out a hair, and the Frog slipped cleanly beyond the harbor and into the open sea.
From "The Voyage Of The Frog" by Gary Paulsen
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 Frederic, Harold
There are also, however, cleanlier families, in whose sleeping chamber the air is not so disgusting.
From The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II by Leslie, Alexander, fl. 1879-1882
His hair and beard were freshly trimmed, and he had a cleanlier look than we have hitherto noticed; moreover, his expression had lost a little of its habitual sullen truculence.
From Till the Clock Stops by Bell, J. J. (John Joy)
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 Murphy, Thomas Dowler
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 Orton, James
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
He spent thus by far the cleanliest and most sane years of his wayward life.
From Rest Harrow A Comedy of Resolution by Hewlett, Maurice Henry
I have grown to know that "Jones'" is the cleanliest place in the Excelsior village, and yet to our thinking it lacks perfection.
From The Woman Who Toils Being the Experiences of Two Gentlewomen as Factory Girls by Vorst, Marie Van
This toilet was as elaborate and painstaking as that of the cleanliest of cats or squirrels.
From The Watchers of the Trails A Book of Animal Life by Roberts, Charles George Douglas, Sir
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.
