Talk:clean

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untitled[edit]

what about the form "cleansure" as in the act of having cleansed, to clean out? 67.5.147.102 06:14, 20 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Clean sweep[edit]

How about many idioms, like clean sweep? The etymology of a phrase is usually different from the etymologies of the component words. David Spector 19:01, 17 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

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Rfd-redundant: "In a condition of having been cleaned." Redundant to #1 'Not dirty', not our best ever definition may I say. FWIW even if someone has cleaned something, it can still be dirty, so the definition might not actually stand up to analysis anyway. Mglovesfun (talk) 17:17, 29 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's in a condition of being redundant, as you say. Haplology 17:28, 29 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Move to RfV. Perhaps it is used this way. I don't see how this is can be resolvable a priori. DCDuring TALK 17:50, 29 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
What would such an rfv hope to achieve? If this definition is correct, it says something can be clean if it has been cleaned in the past, irrespective if it is clean (not dirty) now. Do we want to attempt to cite this? Mglovesfun (talk) 09:48, 30 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
No, because the word we would be attempting to define there would be "cleaned", not "clean". Dbfirs 23:52, 30 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Can you explain please? Mglovesfun (talk) 13:57, 31 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Well the disputed definition is that of "cleaned". I was intending to agree that there is little point in trying to find cites. I agree that "clean" in "quotes" might occasionally be used as a joke instead of "cleaned", but that doesn't indicate that the word clean means cleaned. Dbfirs 12:08, 3 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Delete sense. --Hekaheka 16:38, 3 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

deleted -- Liliana 07:20, 10 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Etymology[edit]

No more needs to be added, except that the meaning of CLEAN is likely to have been influenced by the Celtic GLAN-[6], (clean) ultimately from the same Proto-Indo-European root.

[0] means 'Absolutely not; [1] means 'Exceedingly unlikely'; [2] means 'Very dubious'; [3] means 'Questionable'; [4] means 'Possible'; [5] means 'Probable'; [6] means 'Likely'; [7] means 'Most Likely' or *Unattested; [8] means 'Attested'; [9] means 'Obvious' - only used for close matches within the same language or dialect, at linkable periods.

Andrew H. Gray 11:13, 19 September 2015 (UTC) Andrew (talk)

Figurative Definition: remove contents of something[edit]

What about the figurative definition as in "he cleaned his plate" meaning "he ate everything on his plate." Have I just conflated/confused two expressions? JodianWarrior (talk) 18:40, 22 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

JodianWarrior: I would put that on [[clean one's plate]]. Though if you can point to other such figurative uses, you might have a case. Keφr 18:58, 22 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]
to use up the contents of something
The children cleaned their plates and asked for more.
Microsoft® Encarta® 2009

--Backinstadiums (talk) 12:06, 18 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

adverb: cleanly[edit]

in a clean way
Does this type of gas burn clean?
We wanted to play the game clean.
Microsoft® Encarta® 2009

--Backinstadiums (talk) 12:01, 15 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

clean entrance/exit[edit]

Seems to be when an actor fully enters or leaves the shot. Some sources focus on the fact that seeing the actor enter or leave can enhance realism; others point out that it is important to enter/leave entirely, without one's shadow etc. being in the way. Equinox 16:53, 30 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

hiking sense[edit]

i didnt look too deeply, but i couldnt find any evidence of the hiking sense on, for example, lists of hiking terms. Its not to say I dont believe it, I just want to be sure we're defining it properly. I assume, for example, by "falling" we don't mean literally falling, as in tripping over a rock and hitting the ground, but rather descending, meaning that the trail rises overall but has a few areas in which it dips? I havent seen too many always-up trails but I suppose on a mountain there may be such a thing. Soap 10:36, 25 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

diaper/underwear[edit]

The Encyclopedia Britannica contains the sentence That he might not be overtaxed he was left entirely uneducated, and his indolence was indulged to such an extent that he was not even expected to be clean. I suspect this is a euphemism for having clean underwear (or whatever they wore back then), and not, for example, playing outside on the lawn. Yet it says in the same paragraph that one of the boy's caretakers felt it important that his hair be combed, so I'm not certain of this. Even so, I think I've heard people say such things as "the baby is clean" with the intent of communicating that the baby has a clean diaper, regardless of whether they've been recently bathed. I want to add this subsense, but I just need to think of how best to word it. Also, the STD sense could perhaps be moved under the 1st sense, since a disease is something we often include in the meaning of filth. Soap 13:05, 29 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]