Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use cleanly in a sentence

17 example sentences · adjective, adverb

Cleanly means being habitually clean, practising good hygiene. Example: “We agreed to break off our relationship cleanly.”

Examples of cleanly by meaning

adjectiveBeing habitually clean, practising good hygiene.

  • There were some flat slabs of rock in the centre, with an excellent well close by, and there we sat in cleanly comfort while we made our first plans for the invasion of this new country.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘The most Wonderful Things have Happened’”, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton...
  • Being of a very cleanly habit, he was constantly rubbing himself in order to preserve the whiteness of his skin unsullied.1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page 16

adverbNot causing a mess or unnecessary damage.

  • We agreed to break off our relationship cleanly.
  • Fortunately, the bullet passed cleanly through your shoulder.

More sentences with cleanly

  • The car steers cleanly, but the gearshift has a few quirks.From the entry quirk
  • The sacrifice bunt was fielded cleanly, but the only play was to first.From the entry sacrifice bunt
  • When my indicator went down on my first strike, I cleanly missed the hook up.2014, Michael Gorman, Effective Stillwater Fly Fishing, page 87. From the entry strike
  • There is danger in trying too cleanly to diagram the roots of Hedda’s pathology.2009 January 18, Charles Isherwood, “Hedda Forever: An Antiheroine for the Ages”, in New York Times. From the entry reductiveness
  • The points allow the crosscut saw to score and cleave the grain cleanly.2001, Percival Everett, Erasure, Faber & Faber Limited (2021), page 5. From the entry crosscut saw
  • He thought a minor growth in his throat (later cleanly removed) was an incurable cancer.1939, Douglas Reed, LIFE -- Göring 11 September 1939, Time Inc, →ISSN Invalid ISSN. From the entry commiseratory
  • A gymnast who performs a difficult vault with some flaws can outscore one who does an easier vault cleanly.2024 July 27, Maggie Astor, “Your Guide to Olympic Gymnastics: Vault”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 31 Jul 2024. From the entry outscore
  • The game was engulfed in controversy when Rodwell appeared to win the ball cleanly in a midfield challenge with Suarez.2011 October 1, Phil McNulty, “Everton 0-2 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 06 Jan 2012. From the entry writhe
  • Even the tackiest products "depackage" cleanly, completely.1962, Package Engineering - Volume 7, page 31. From the entry depackage
  • The bullet passed through her thigh, cleanly, severing the dust-bones and making the second self stumble for a moment before knitting the injury back together.2023 September 22, HarryBlank, “Off Track”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 25 May 2024. From the entry beanie
  • Another of his flock was spotted garrotted, one found twisted and drowned at the bottom of a foss and a third split cleanly from scut to teeth.2017, Benjamin Myers, The Gallows Pole, Bloomsbury, published 2019, page 101. From the entry foss
  • Bringing a system down cleanly will preserve the operating system and some log files, but again will destroy the contents of the RAM (the volatile data).2009, Dale Liu, Cisco Router and Switch Forensics. From the entry graceful
  • I remember keening that seemed to go on all through the night: shrill, sharp, shiny, needles of sound piercing cleanly and deeply to let the anguish in, not out.1988, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions, Faber & Faber Limited (2021), page 85. From the entry keening

Meaning of cleanly

  1. adjective Being habitually clean, practising good hygiene.
  2. adjective Cleansing; fitted to remove moisture; dirt, etc.
  3. adjective Adroit; dexterous; artful.

Full definition of cleanly

Questions about cleanly in a sentence

How do you use cleanly in a sentence?
Cleanly is used as an adjective and adverb. For example: “We agreed to break off our relationship cleanly.”
What is a short sentence with cleanly?
“Even the tackiest products "depackage" cleanly, completely.”
What does cleanly mean?
Cleanly means being habitually clean, practising good hygiene.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cleanly (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use cleanly in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/cleanly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.