adverb
-
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:
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
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
A paper he co-wrote, presented at the Kansas City Fed’s 2022 Jackson Hole symposium, highlighted how the process doesn’t run cleanly in reverse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
As a result, manufacturers would have more flexibility to remove the top sulfur layer cleanly while preserving the rest of the material.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 17, 2026
His hair rolled back cleanly as a wave at the beach.
From "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye
Nature would do that cleanlier; and waxwork more powerfully!
From Earthwork out of Tuscany Being Impressions and Translations of Maurice Hewlett by Hewlett, Maurice Henry
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)
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 Donne, John
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
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 Motteux, Peter Anthony
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
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 Arbuthnot, John
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 Talmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt)
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 Fanshawe, Anne Harrison, Lady
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.
