Word.ws English Dictionary

spring-cleaning

spring-cleaning is the alternative form of spring cleaning.

Meaning of spring cleaning

Noun

spring cleaning (countable and uncountable, plural spring cleanings)

  1. A systematic cleaning of a residence at the end of winter.
    • The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of white-wash all over his black fur, and an...1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, London: Methuen, page 1
  2. (broadly, figuratively) A systematic cleaning, reorganization, or weeding out of a system.
    • I spent the whole day in my head / Do a little spring cleanin' / I'm always too busy dreamin'2020, Mac Miller, “Good News”, in Circles
    Synonyms:
    spring clean

Words formed from spring-cleaning

Questions about spring-cleaning

What is spring-cleaning the alternative form of?
Spring-cleaning is the alternative form of spring cleaning.

Words near spring-cleaning in the dictionary

  1. spring-boxes
  2. spring-clean
  3. spring-cleaned
  4. spring-cleaner
  5. spring-cleaners
  6. spring-cleaning
  7. spring-cleans
  8. spring-heeled
  9. Spring-heeled Jack
  10. spring-heeled Jacks
  11. spring-like

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spring-cleaning (page history and authors); spring cleaning (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “spring-cleaning.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spring-cleaning. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.