to clean house
3
4.0
- phrasal verb
- /klin haʊs/
- Informal
:
hacer limpieza
- The manager decided it was time to clean house and remove underperforming staff.
We can clean house politically in this country at all levels, from town councils to the White House.
- We can clean house politically in this country at all levels, from town councils to the White House.
Examples
-
The American voter needs to clean house.
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I think we should clean house with all incumbents, regardless of party affiliation.
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- We should come down here... once a week and clean house.
-
We also need to clean house at the city council.
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Maybe you need to clean house and start over?
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Shall we clean house in Washington from the ground up?
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Shell needs to clean house and rid itself of its 'good old boys' and hire some truly professional managers.
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We can clean house politically in this country at all levels, from town councils to the White House.
-
First, we need to clean house on the next opportunity with our selectmen.
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I do think Leach has to clean house and get players in there that want to play his style of football.
Blog text (24)
Synonyms
∞
1.6
To remove or throw away something you do not want
91
3.1
Remove all things from a place so it becomes empty
91
3.2
Empty a place or container by removing everything inside
88
3.7
Remove something so it is no longer used
73
4.8
Make a person or place free from unwanted feelings such as guilt
56
4.1
Deal with and finish a problem or task so it no longer causes trouble
49
6.3
To remove unwanted substances, things, or people by cleaning
43
3.4
To change the way something is arranged to make it work better
37
3.8
To remove unwanted people or things from a group
1
3.9
To destroy or carry something away completely, for example by water
1
4.9
Getting your home and things tidy and ready
To remove people or practices from an organization to make it work better
How Thorough
73
5.1
49
6.3
- Informal
3
4.0
43
3.4
317
2.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb 'clean' (to remove unwanted things) combined with 'house' creates a metaphorical extension meaning to purge or reorganize an organizational ‘house.’ The basic idea of removing unwanted elements is present and may be partially guessable, but many B1 learners will likely interpret it literally as cleaning a home and need exposure to the idiomatic organizational sense.
Etymology
Clean house comes from the image of sweeping a home and throwing out old or useless things. So people began to use it for getting rid of unwanted workers or problems, meaning 'to reorganize or eliminate unwanted people or things'.