cleanly

[klen-lee, kleen-lee]

adjective

cleanlier, cleanliest 

1. personally neat; careful to keep or make clean.

   The cat is by nature a cleanly animal.

2. habitually kept clean.

3. Obsolete.,  cleansing; making clean.

adverb

1. in a clean manner.

cleanly

/ ˈklɛnlɪnɪs, ˈklɛnlɪlɪ /

adverb

1. in a fair manner

2. easily or smoothly

   the screw went into the wood cleanly

adjective

1. habitually clean or neat

Other Word Forms

• cleanliness noun
• cleanlily adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of cleanly¹

before 900; Middle English clenlich ( e ), Old English clǣnlīc, equivalent to clǣne clean + -līc -ly

Example Sentences

In all three of these precise and cleanly bounded exceptions, the crucial point was essentially territorial.

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Hydrogen, if generated cleanly, produces only water as a byproduct.

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Piastri's stop went cleanly, but Norris lost four seconds at his because of a problem fitting his left front wheel.

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"But perhaps we shouldn't be too quick to cleanly equate one man with the other – because Jay Kelly isn't Jay Kelly either, and that's the problem."

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Michael Pepper, who batted at number three, had struggled early on to hit the ball cleanly, while Brook was sat watching him chew up deliveries.

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