cleaning

[ klee-ning ]

noun

an act or instance of making clean: Give the house a good cleaning.
Slang. an overwhelming or complete defeat, financial loss, or failure: Our team took a cleaning in yesterday's game.

Origin of cleaning

First recorded in 1655–75; clean + -ing¹

Then, after the large chunks were gone, the dust and cleanings should have been put into wheelbarrows and taken over to a crusher.
Into the Jaws of Death | Jack O'Brien
Mrs. Trevor never rested till I got three hoffices to clean, to say nothing of 'elping at cleanings and parties in 'ouses.
Afterwards | Ian Maclaren
The colours, notwithstanding injudicious cleanings and restorations, still shine with the purest light.
A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools | Various
Thoroughly but carefully she went through all the minutiæ of those everlasting cleanings and brushings.
A Girl in Ten Thousand | L. T. Meade
For many springs and spring cleanings the horse-chestnut buds peered in at the nursery windows and found her still within.
Diana Tempest, Volume III (of 3) | Mary Cholmondeley

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