Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Clean

Clean (klēn) , adjective

[Old English clene, Anglo-Saxon clane; akin to Old High German chleini pure, neat, graceful, small, German klein small, and perh. to Welsh glan clean, pure, bright; all perh. from a primitive, meaning bright, shining. Compare Glair.]

1.
Free from dirt or filth; as, clean clothes.
2.
Free from that which is useless or injurious; without defects; as, clean land; clean timber.
3.
Free from awkwardness; not bungling; adroit; dexterous; as, a clean trick; a clean leap over a fence.
4.
Free from errors and vulgarisms; as, a clean style.
5.
Free from restraint or neglect; complete; entire.
When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of corners of thy field. — Lev. xxiii. 22
6.
Free from moral defilement; sinless; pure.
Create in me a clean heart, O God. — Bible (KJV) - Psalm li. 10
That I am whole, and clean, and meet for Heaven — Tennyson
7.
(Scripture) Free from ceremonial defilement.
8.
Free from that which is corrupting to the morals; pure in tone; healthy.
Lothair is clean. — F. Harrison
9.
Well-proportioned; shapely; as, clean limbs.
Collocations (3)
A clean bill of health , a certificate from the proper authority that a ship is free from infection.
Clean breach , See under Breach, n., 4.
To make a clean breast , See under Breast.

Clean , adverb

1.
Without limitation or remainder; quite; perfectly; wholly; entirely.
Domestic broils clean overblown. — Shakespeare
All the people were passed clean over Jordan. — Josh. iii. 17
2.
Without miscarriage; not bunglingly; dexterously. [Obsolete]
Pope came off clean with Homer. — Henley

Clean (klēn) , transitive verb

[See Clean, a., and compare Cleanse.]

To render clean; to free from whatever is foul, offensive, or extraneous; to purify; to cleanse.
Collocations (1)
To clean out , to exhaust; to empty; to get away from (one) all his money. [Colloquial] — De Quincey