to clean the pool
- phrasal verb
- After the storm, we need to clean the pool to remove all the debris that has collected.
- go out and clean the pool
Examples
-
I thought you cleaned the pool this morning.
Fiction book (1999) -
Bob, you were told to thoroughly clean the pool this morning.
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Okay, we're all going to clean the pool today.
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Why do we have to clean the pool, of all things?
-
Sam, l need you to clean the pool tonight.
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Mom says to clean the pool.
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Did he do a good job cleaning the pool?
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Get back to cleaning the pool!
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I didn't hire him to clean the pool.
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And clean the pool!
Antonyms
How Clean
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to remove dirt from a swimming pool' is directly and transparently derived from the verb 'clean' (to wash/remove grime) applied to the noun 'pool' (a place for swimming); the determiner 'the' does not change composition. This is a straightforward verb + object construction common across languages and predictable for a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Clean the pool comes from the simple image of someone using a net, brush, or pump to lift leaves and dirt out of the pool, and the word clean shows the action of 'removing dirt'. So it means 'to remove dirt and leaves from a swimming pool'.