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Showing results for come clean. Search instead for pool clean.
Synonyms

come clean

Idioms  

  1. Confess everything, as in If you come clean about what happened I will promise to keep it to myself. [Slang; early 1900s]

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.

His decades of painstaking research helped lead to a push in the 1990s for the Air Force to come clean on what it had been doing: testing spy balloons and recovering crash dummies.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 22, 2026

"HMRC is running a disclosure facility where taxpayers can come clean on undeclared gains and unpaid tax prior to April 2024."

From BBC • Jan. 1, 2026

She wasn’t the first to come clean like this.

From Slate • Jun. 7, 2025

China wants to completely shift the narrative, says Mr Dhar, "It is trying to come clean amidst increased scrutiny".

From BBC • May 5, 2025

He knew it was time to come clean.

From "As Brave As You" by Jason Reynolds

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.