clean up
Verb (transitive):
- To make something clean or orderly: To remove dirt, mess, or clutter from a place or object, resulting in a neat and tidy state.
- To settle or resolve a situation: To deal with and finish something, such as paying debts or resolving problems.
- To make a large financial gain: To earn a substantial amount of money, often quickly or unexpectedly.
Verb (intransitive):
- To make oneself clean and neat: To wash oneself and put on tidy clothes.
- To engage in the act of cleaning: To perform the task of making a place tidy.
Verb (transitive):
- We need to clean up the kitchen after cooking.
- The company hired a specialist to clean up the accounting mess.
- He cleaned up at the poker table last night.
Verb (intransitive):
- Go clean up; dinner will be ready in ten minutes.
- Everyone helped clean up after the party.
"to clean up one's act": To improve one's behavior or habits, often to become more respectable or successful.
- After the warning, he decided to clean up his act and be more professional.
"to clean up on something": To defeat competitors decisively or to achieve great success in a particular area.
- Our team cleaned up on their rivals in the final match.
Cleanup (noun): The act or process of cleaning something up.
- The beach cleanup is scheduled for Saturday morning.
Clean (adjective/verb): The base form meaning free from dirt or impurities.
- Tidy (up): To make a place neat by putting things in order.
- Clear up: To make a place tidy by removing objects (often overlapping with resolving a situation).
- Profit handsomely: To gain a large financial benefit.
Clean out: To remove all the contents or unwanted items from a space; also, to use all of someone's money.
- I need to clean out the garage this weekend.
Clean off: To remove dirt or items from a surface.
- Please clean off the table before you set it.
Make a clean sweep: To win all the prizes or contests, or to remove all unwanted people or things completely.
- The new manager made a clean sweep of the old policies.
Come clean: To confess or tell the truth about something.
- After years of guilt, he finally came clean about the mistake.
- make oneself clean, presentable or neat
- Clean up before you go to the party
- dispose of
- settle the bills
- make a big profit; often in a short period of time
- The investor really cleaned up when the stock market went up
- put (things or places) in order
- Tidy up your room!