phrasal verb🧩 phrasal verb

clean up

to tidy a space

What it means

To make a place tidy and clean, especially after a mess. It can also mean to win a lot of money or to remove corruption from an organisation.

Examples

  • Could you help me clean up the kitchen after the dinner party?
  • The volunteers cleaned up the entire park in just one afternoon.
  • She cleaned up at the poker table and walked away with five hundred pounds.
  • The new mayor promised to clean up corruption in the city council.

Where it comes from

Separable phrasal verb — 'clean up the mess' or 'clean the mess up'. The financial sense ('to clean up' on a deal) emerged in 19th-century American slang.

Related phrasal verbs

#wash up#put away#sort out

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