Cleans

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /kliːnz/

Definitions

1. To eliminate impurities and dirt from surfaces, to ensure items are free from unwanted materials and contaminants, and to refresh or restore cleanliness to various spaces through effective methods
2. To remove dirt, stains, or unwanted substances from an object or area, making it free from contamination
3. To wash or tidy up a space or item so that it looks neat and hygienic, removing all traces of mess

Etymology: The verb "cleans" is just the third-person singular of "clean" used with a plural subject or as a plain present form, so its story is the story of the adjective it comes from. That adjective has a surprising starting point: its earliest meaning was closer to "small" or "dainty" than to "spotless." Its ancestor, reconstructed as Proto-West Germanic "klainī," meant something like "fine" or "delicate," and it may trace back to a root meaning "gleaming," so the idea of brightness came first and purity followed. The Old English form "clǣne" carried the sense "clean, pure, clear," and it developed through Middle English "clene" into the modern word. The gradual move from "small and neat" to "free from dirt" is part of why the family of words it belongs to still spreads across the Germanic languages. German and Dutch "klein" still mean "small," and Danish "klejn" once meant "delicate, tiny," so the English verb is a distant cousin of words for something little.

Synonyms: washes, purifies, sanitizes, tidies, scrubs

Antonyms: dirty, contaminates, pollutes