If you clean up a mess or clean up a place where there is a mess, you make things tidy and free of dirt again.
Police in the city have been cleaning up the debris left by a day of violent confrontation. [VERBPARTICLE noun]
Nina and Mary were in the kitchen, cleaning up after dinner. [VERBPARTICLE]
[Also VERB noun PARTICLE]
2. phrasal verb
To clean up something such as the environment or an industrial process means to make it free from substances or processes that cause pollution.
Under pressure from the public, many regional governments cleaned up their beaches. [VERBPARTICLE noun]
[Also VERB noun PARTICLE]
3. phrasal verb
If the police or authorities clean up a place or area of activity, they make it free from crime, corruption, and other unacceptable forms of behaviour.
After years of neglect and decline the city was cleaning itself up. [VERB pronoun-reflexive PARTICLE]
Since then, the authorities have tried to clean up the sport. [VERBPARTICLE noun]
4. phrasal verb
If you go and clean up, you make yourself clean and tidy, especially after doing something that has made you dirty.
Johnny, go inside and get cleaned up. [getV-ed P]
I cleaned myself up a bit, and got the baby ready. [VERB noun PARTICLE]
5. phrasal verb
If someone cleans up, they make a large profit or get a lot of money.
[informal]
It has cleaned up at the box office. [VERBPARTICLE]
See full dictionary entry for clean
clean-up
Word forms: plural clean-upsregional note: in AM, use cleanup
countable noun
A clean-up is the removing of dirt, pollution, crime, or corruption from somewhere.
...the need for a clean-up of Italian institutions. [+ of]
The Governor has now called in the National Guard to assist the cleanup operation.
clean up in British English
verb(adverb)
1.
to rid (something) of dirt, filth, or other impurities
2.
to make (someone or something) orderly or presentable
3. (transitive)
to rid (a place) of undesirable people or conditions
the campaign against vice had cleaned up the city
4. (intransitive) informal
to make a great profit
nouncleanup
5.
a.
the process of cleaning up or eliminating something
b.
(as modifier)
a cleanup campaign
6. informal, mainly US
a great profit
clean up in American English
1.
to make clean, neat, or orderly
2.
to make oneself clean and neat; get washed, combed, etc.
3. Informal
to dispose of completely; finish
4. US, Slang
to make much money or profit
See full dictionary entry for clean
Examples of 'clean up' in a sentence
clean up
I hope they send him a bill for cleaning up the jet and for the delay.
The Sun (2011)
If she fails to clean up the fiasco she could be moved from her post as early as Friday.
The Sun (2006)
In other languages
clean up
British English: clean-up NOUN
A clean-up is the removing of dirt, pollution, crime, or corruption from somewhere.
His supporters want a clean-up of civilian corruption.
American English: cleanup
Brazilian Portuguese: faxina
Chinese: 扫荡
European Spanish: limpieza
French: nettoyage
German: Säuberung
Italian: ripulita
Japanese: 浄化
Korean: 청소
European Portuguese: limpeza
Latin American Spanish: limpieza
Chinese translation of 'clean up'
clean up
vt
[room, place]打扫(掃)干(乾)净(淨) (dǎsǎo gānjìng)
[mess]整理 (zhěnglǐ)
(fig, = remove crime from) 整治 (zhěngzhì)
vi
打扫(掃)干(乾)净(淨) (dǎsǎo gānjìng)
(inf, = make profit) 发(發)大财(財) (fā dàcái)
See clean
All related terms of 'clean up'
clean up on
to defeat; beat
clean up after
If you clean up after someone, you clean or tidy a place that they have made dirty or untidy .
clean-up operation
An operation is a highly organized activity that involves many people doing different things.
clean up one's act
to start to behave in a responsible manner
clean up your act
to improve your behaviour and start to act in a more socially responsible way
to clean up your act
If someone who has been behaving badly cleans up their act , they start to behave in a more acceptable or responsible way .