neaten
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
neatensimple
-
neatenssimple
-
have neatenedperfect
-
has neatenedperfect
-
am neateningprogressive
-
are neateningprogressive
-
is neateningprogressive
-
have been neateningperfect progressive
-
has been neateningperfect progressive
Past
-
neatenedsimple
-
had neatenedperfect
-
was neateningprogressive
-
were neateningprogressive
-
had been neateningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of neaten
Explanation
To neaten is to tidy up or to clean. You can neaten your room by making your bed and throwing your dirty clothes in the laundry basket. When you turn disorder into order, you neaten. You might neaten your car by throwing away the accumulated soda cans and brushing crumbs off the seats, or neaten your outfit by straightening your tie and tucking in your shirt. Neaten comes from neat, "tidy or clean," from the Middle French net, "clear or pure." The root is the Latin nitere, "to shine."
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 brief was to reduce the bulk at the sides and neaten the perimeter.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 24, 2020
The reader struggles, along with Vanessa, to make sense of what is happening, to interpolate, to see the truth, with so many false accounts, so many delusions, so many efforts to neaten or prettify.
From New York Times ● Mar. 6, 2020
Over 24 hours, I watched pundits and advocates try to neaten this case up, with conclusions that might wrangle the story back into something more orderly.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 21, 2018
They fundamentally try to neaten things up and make it look more rational than it is.
From Salon ● Oct. 6, 2012
As a child she always had a knack for organization; she would take it upon herself to neaten closets and drawers, not only her own but her parents’ as well.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
"Wait—" She adjusts my collar, neatens up my tie.
From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon
We can’t do it without you,’” said Frank Morales, a gravedigger who had just power-washed the monument and neatened the collection of memorabilia that fans leave behind.
From New York Times ● Oct. 5, 2018
But now, said Mr. Rohr, sitting amid the neatened destruction, “It’s time to resume a normal routine.”
From New York Times ● Jul. 4, 2011
She bent forward and neatened a stack of papers on the desk.
From "The Rock and the River" by Kekla Magoon
She neatened the border of her sari where it rose diagonally across her chest.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Getting through it can take powerful magic, huge acts of transformation and small acts of neatening.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 19, 2020
“It feels like a small act of neatening that I really appreciate,” says Daniel Lavery, the author of Slate’s Dear Prudence advice column.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 19, 2020
Some like Atlas tend the bangles by pruning and neatening their edges.
From New York Times ● Mar. 28, 2019
A thematic approach can be a tricky, Procrustean way to go; you’re basically imposing an artificially neatening template on an unruly career.
From New York Times ● Oct. 16, 2014
So I folded that piece of paper really small, and, pretending I was neatening up my braid, I wound it into my hair.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
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.
