spot-clean
spot-clean verb: to clean only those parts that are soiled, rather than cleaning the entire thing, area, etc.
Verb
spot-clean (third-person singular simple present spot-cleans, present participle spot-cleaning, simple past and past participle spot-cleaned)
- To clean only those parts that are soiled, rather than cleaning the entire thing, area, etc.
- “You can ruin the cloth if you try to spot-clean it,” warns Susan Fritz, co-owner of Denver Doll Hospital, a doll-cleaning and restoration business.1999, Jeff Bredenberg, Clean It Fast, Clean It Right, page 151
- If you need to spot-clean a dryclean-only fabric, try using Energine Cleaning Fluid, available at grocery and hardware stores.2002, Linda Cobb, The Queen of Clean's Complete Cleaning Guide
Forms of spot-clean
| third-person singular present | spot-cleans |
|---|---|
| present participle | spot-cleaning |
| past participle | spot-cleaned |
| past | spot-cleaned |
| alternative form | spotclean |
| alternative form | spot clean |
Questions about spot-clean
- What does spot-clean mean?
- Spot-clean means to clean only those parts that are soiled, rather than cleaning the entire thing, area, etc.
- What part of speech is spot-clean?
- Spot-clean is a verb.
- What is the past tense of spot-clean?
- The past tense of spot-clean is spot-cleaned.
Words near spot-clean in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spot-clean (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “spot-clean.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spot-clean. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.