clean out

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

1. transitiveTo clean, especially to tidy by removing the contents.

   Clean out your purse and at least get rid of all the trash you're hauling around.

   1 more example

   As soon as they have been pumped dry they are thoroughly cleaned out with high pressure hoses to prepare them for the next load.

   1959 March, R. C. Riley, “Home with the Milk”, in Trains Illustrated, page 155

2. slangtransitiveTo take all money or possessions from.

   The divorce cleaned him out.

   1 more example

   Well, looks like you just about cleaned everybody out, fella. You haven't lost a hand since you lost the deal.

   1969, William Goldman, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, spoken by Macon (Donnelly Rhodes)

   Synonyms: clear out, take to the cleaners

3. datedslangtransitiveTo hit or strike (someone); to beat up.

   could have cleaned him out with an uppercut to the side of his head.

   2000, Antonia Logue, Shadow-Box

4. To defeat, to cause to wash out.

   Liverpool needed a break and they got it at the beginning of the second half, from, of all things, a misplaced City pass. Aké was the culprit, undercooking his attempt to go back to Ederson and seeing Núñez steal in. He toed it away from the goalkeeper and was promptly cleaned out by him.

   2024 March 10, David Hytner, “Doku involved at both ends as Liverpool and Manchester City share spoils”, in The Guardian