spring-clean

verb

To carry out a spring cleaning of (a room, a house, etc).

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Meanings

verbspring-clean (third-person singular simple present spring-cleans, present participle spring-cleaning, simple past and past participle spring-cleaned)

present singular third person spring-cleans · participle present spring-cleaning · participle past spring-cleaned · past spring-cleaned

  1. transitiveTo carry out a spring cleaning of (a room, a house, etc).

    The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home.

    1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 1
  2. intransitiveTo engage in spring cleaning.

Origin

Back-formation from spring-cleaning.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

spring-clean. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spring-clean

MLA

“spring-clean.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spring-clean. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “spring-clean,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spring-clean.

Source: spring-clean on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.