to clean up
1
4.8
- phrasal verb
- /ˈkliːn ʌp/
- Informal
- You can really clean up at the casino if you play smart.
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Watch on YouTubeUKIP cleaned up at the European elections.
- UKIP cleaned up at the European elections.
- I mean, just and, but they went through a couple more CEO's since then who really, really cleaned up.
Examples
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Later, as if to add an exclamation point to this conversation, A cleaned up at a poker party thrown in his honor.
Fiction book (1994) -
But it's certainly allowed us to clean up the capital structure, simplify things, pay down debt faster.
-
Why, man, you can clean up big tonight.
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You would really clean up at my poker game.
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I gave him fifty pounds, and all in all, he probably cleaned up quite well.
Fiction book (1992) -
I bet she cleans up at this thing.
-
In 2008, he cleaned up and went all-in on music.
Blog text (13) -
UKIP cleaned up at the European elections.
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Well, I bet a thousand bucks on Sifu and I cleaned up.
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It would've been easier if we'd just sold the house, because the way the market was, we would've cleaned up.
Synonyms
22
4.9
To earn a lot of money very quickly and easily
Antonyms
How Profitable
30
4.0
60
3.2
- Informal
1
4.8
71
3.7
25
3.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
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 has a strong image from winning: a person takes all the money at a table or market and 'cleans up' the pot, leaving nothing for others. That's why it means 'to make a large profit quickly or easily'.