clean up

See also: clean-up and cleanup

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

clean up (third-person singular simple present cleans up, present participle cleaning up, simple past and past participle cleaned up)

1. (transitive) To make an area or a thing clean; to pick up a mess; to tidy.
   • 2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

     At the same time, it is pouring money into cleaning up the country.

   Clean up your room.

2. (intransitive, idiomatic, colloquial) To become clean, handsome, smart in appearance, e.g. for a special occasion, especially when it is out of character to be seen as such.

   He sure cleans up nice.

3. (intransitive, idiomatic) To make a large profit; to win by a large margin, or to win a large amount, especially in gambling. Also clean house.

   Man, he sure cleaned up last night at the blackjack table.   The investors cleaned up when the stock hit the roof last year.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:clean up.

Related terms

• cleanup

Translations

to make an area or a thing clean

• Catalan: netejar (ca)
• Czech: vyčistit (cs)
• Esperanto: purigi
• French: nettoyer (fr)
• Japanese: 掃除する (sōji suru)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: sprzątać (pl) impf, posprzątać (pl) pf
• Russian: убира́ться (ru) (ubirátʹsja), прибираться (ru) (pribiratʹsja)
• Slovene: počistiti
• Spanish: limpiar (es)
• Vietnamese: quét dọn (vi), quét tước (vi)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} nettoyer (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} röja upp (sv)

See also

• cleanup
• clean out
• clean house

Noun

clean up (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of cleanup

Anagrams

• unplace