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🧹 To tidy 📄 To finish tasks 🚿 To wash oneself 🚫 To stop drugs 💰 To make money
to clean up

to clean up

41 3.9
To stop using drugs or alcohol and stay sober
  • phrasal verb
  • /ˈklin ʌp/
  • Informal
: ponerse limpio (informal)
  • She attended a rehabilitation program to clean up her life and overcome her addiction.
  • clean up your act
  • clean up your life
  • help people clean up

He stops drinking, he gets he cleans himself up.

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Examples

  • We're gonna take you in, we're gonna get you cleaned up.

    Lean on Pete (2018)

  • Now I'm trying to clean up my act.

    Absentia (2011)

  • Maybe more if I clean up my act.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • I was trying to clean up my act.

    Blog text (22)

  • Even when he tries to clean up his act, she always finds something to pick at him about.

    Blog text (32)

  • China is heading for a hard fall if it can't clean up its act.

    Blog text (29)

  • But I've cleaned up my life.

    Bad Santa 2 (2016)

  • Anyone who'd known her back then would see she'd cleaned up her act.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • If Martin doesn't clean up his act, he's not gonna be acting anywhere.

    Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat (2002)

  • In most cases, according to Shusterman, all of these clients have cleaned up their acts and now are productive, hard-working members of society.

    Academic text (2002)

Synonyms

to quit
vsto clean up
∞ 1.0

To stop doing a habit or activity like smoking

refers specifically to stopping addictive substances after a period of abuse
to give it up
vsto clean up
217 3.7

To stop doing something you once did

applies specifically to stopping substance use after prolonged misuse
to kick
vsto clean up
29 6.2

Stop a bad habit, for example smoking

focuses on stopping drugs and addictive substances after serious abuse
to go cold turkey
vsto clean up
  • Informal
9 8.2

Stop a habit or addiction all at once

usually involves any method of stopping drugs, not only sudden cessation
to detox
vsto clean up
  • Specialized
9 5.5

To stop using drugs or alcohol while receiving medical help

is broader, meaning simply to stop addictive substance use often without treatment

How Sober

to recover
865 2.5
to clean up
  • Informal
41 3.9
to quit
∞ 1.0
to cut down
145 2.7

Surface Forms

clean up infinitive
cleaned up past
cleaned up past participle
cleaning up present participle
cleans up third person singular

Morphology

clean + up

There is a visible compositional link: 'clean' (to be free from dirt or contaminants, and by extension abstinent) plus 'up' (completion) yields a sense of becoming fully 'clean.' However, the specific sense 'stop using drugs' is a sociolinguistic/metaphorical extension of 'clean' that many B1 learners would not reliably infer from the constituents without prior exposure, so the phrase is only partially predictable.

Etymology

Clean up also comes from the idea of becoming 'clean' again; imagine getting rid of bad things and dirt so your life feels fresh. So, it means 'to stop using drugs and become sober'.