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:
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
“Establish Florida domicile first, cleanly and provably. Then time the big withdrawals for after that’s done. The home sale and the distribution strategy aren’t two decisions — they’re one decision with two moving parts.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 8, 2026
Davis, who played center field all night, said the conditions made it difficult to field cleanly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2026
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
His face is cleanly shaven, and he smells of Old Spice.
From "Like Vanessa" by Tami Charles
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
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
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 J. J. (John Joy) Bell
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
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
Their cleanliest monthly average is 54 tons of dirt to the square mile.
From Time Magazine Archive
The gentle Maldivians are among Asia's best-fed, cleanliest and healthiest people.
From Time Magazine Archive
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 Marie Van Vorst
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
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 Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts
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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.
