adverb
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in a fair manner
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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
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
The physicists liked physical models, and economists liked linear models, so machine learning didn’t fit cleanly into either camp and was viewed with suspicion.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 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
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
To this Gargantua answered, that he had taken such a course for that himself, that in all the country there was not to be found a cleanlier boy than he.
From Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 1 by Peter Anthony Motteux
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 Alexander Leslie
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
Another time, however, I will visit neither the one nor the other; but take up my quarters at the King of Wirtemberg--the neatest, cleanliest, and most comfortable hotel in Stuttgart.
From A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three by Thomas Frognall Dibdin
He spent thus by far the cleanliest and most sane years of his wayward life.
From Rest Harrow A Comedy of Resolution by Maurice Henry Hewlett
The sheep, the cleanliest of creatures, here made a symbol of those who have all their sins washed away in the fountain of redeeming mercy.
From New Tabernacle Sermons by T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt) Talmage
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
