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window cleaner

window cleaner

1 1.6
A person who cleans windows on buildings or vehicles for money
  • noun
  • /ˈwɪndoʊ ˈklinər/
  • UK
translation icon : limpiador de ventanas
  • The window cleaner arrived early in the morning to wash the office building's glass facade.
  • spray window cleaner

Examples

  • Today, a window cleaner came to make sure all the windows are shiny for the winter.

    Blog text (13)
  • And I gave it all up for a window cleaner from Tamaqua.

  • - I'm going to be a window cleaner.

  • I always wanted to be a skyscraper window cleaner just for the rush.

  • The charwoman sprays window cleaner on the windows.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • The window cleaner, Ron, had been reprimanded by the police inspector in charge of the case, and later by a sergeant and by a woman constable.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • Since the window cleaner, Ronald Craig Thomas, was known to take this route along Old Engine Way every weekday morning, he was later interrupted in his work and questioned by the police.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • Carol Dickson's body was discovered by a window cleaner the following morning, lying on fallen leaves and woody straggles of cotoneaster bush, more than a mile and a half away, in Old Engine Way.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • She thought about the missing thirty-five pounds and all the strangers who ambled through their office: window cleaners, photocopy repairmen, clients.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • After the storm, we hired a window cleaner to remove the dirt and debris from our windows.

Synonyms

window washer
vswindow cleaner
  • US
6 1.8

A person who cleans the glass on windows of buildings

includes work on vehicles as well as buildings

Antonyms

22 4.0

A person who damages public or private property on purpose

Surface Forms

Morphology

window + cleaner

The meaning is directly and transparently derived from combining 'window' (an opening fitted with glass) with 'cleaner' (a person who cleans), yielding a noun-noun compound meaning 'a person who cleans windows.' This is a productive, cross-linguistically common compounding pattern in English, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Window cleaner is a simple picture name: imagine someone on a ladder or with a long pole washing the glass of a building. The words window and cleaner tell the same story, so it means 'a person whose job is to clean windows'.