clean house

present singular third person cleans house · participle present cleaning house · participle past cleaned house · past cleaned house

1. intransitiveliterallyTo clean the interior of a house.
2. figurativelyintransitiveTo reform a workplace, organization, etc. by removing undesirable personnel or procedures.

   1 more example

   Francis was elected in March 2013 after the resignation of Benedict XVI, the first pontiff to step down in nearly six centuries, amid turmoil and intrigue about secret lobbies and financial chicanery. The cardinal electors sought a reformer with a strong administrative hand, but few anticipated how Francis, then the 76-year-old archbishop of Buenos Aires, would blend reformist zeal and folksy charm in a push to clean house and transform the church.

   2025 April 21, Jason Horowitz, Jim Yardley, “Francis, the First Latin American Pope, Dies at 88”, in The New York Times

3. intransitiveslangTo win overwhelmingly.

   Time to clean some house, be a man or a mouse, waste those who make it tough to get around.

   1981 September 16, Devo, “Through Being Cool”, in New Traditionalists

   1 more example

   Some companies that others perceived as being late to the party really cleaned house: Facebook was after MySpace […]

   2012, Erika Napoletano, The Power of Unpopular