The Collaborative International Dictionary
Clean \Clean\ (kl[=e]n), a. [Compar. Cleaner (kl[=e]n"[~e]r); superl. Cleanest.] [OE. clene, AS. cl[=ae]ne; akin to OHG. chleini pure, neat, graceful, small, G. klein small, and perh. to W. glan clean, pure, bright; all perh. from a primitive, meaning bright, shining. Cf. Glair.]
Free from dirt or filth; as, clean clothes.
Free from that which is useless or injurious; without defects; as, clean land; clean timber.
Free from awkwardness; not bungling; adroit; dexterous; as, a clean trick; a clean leap over a fence.
Free from errors and vulgarisms; as, a clean style.
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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. -
Free from moral defilement; sinless; pure.
Create in me a clean heart, O God.
--Ps. li. 10That I am whole, and clean, and meet for Heaven
--Tennyson. (Script.) Free from ceremonial defilement.
Free from that which is corrupting to the morals; pure in tone; healthy. ``Lothair is clean.''
--F. Harrison.-
Well-proportioned; shapely; as, clean limbs.
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.
Usage examples of "clean breach".
He saw the copper of her hull: she drove farther on to the reef in two great heaves and there lay on her side, the waves making a clean breach over her.
The helmsmen gradually became more expert, but on one occasion when Scott and some other officers were on the bridge the ship swerved round, and was immediately swept by a monstrous sea which made a clean breach over her.
Bob was presented with an ultimatum: it was to be either Acapulco or a clean breach.
She had fallen off, as vessels do when hove to, and the first sea made a clean breach.