CLEANING Synonyms: 62 Similar and Opposite Words

cleaning

verb

present participle of clean

as in scrubbing

to remove the dirt from we cleaned the clothes before donating them to charity

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in removing

to take the internal organs out of cleaned the rabbit before cooking it

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of cleaning The lid for covering food on the grill and the magnetic wall strip for knife and utensil storage lack cleaning. — Nwa Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas Online, 19 Oct. 2026 Performing basic maintenance and cleaning the system shouldn’t be too difficult. — Michael Justin Allen Sexton, PC Magazine, 17 Oct. 2026 My mom enrolled as a junior at Hollywood High School and took care of the house—cleaning, reheating frozen chicken pot pies, and making sure everyone did their homework. — Literary Hub, 16 Oct. 2026 Ask whether housekeeping includes fresh towels, trash removal, bed-making and bathroom cleaning, particularly during longer stays. — Ashley Lynch, Miami Herald, 16 Oct. 2026 How to Clean Your Fridge Interior With Vinegar Cleaning your fridge’s interior is just important as cleaning its exterior. — Asia London Palomba, The Spruce, 16 Oct. 2026 High school sports programs are filled with dozens of volunteers — manning the snack bar, taking tickets, helping provide security, cleaning floors, carrying equipment and taking statistics. — Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct. 2026 After cleaning the pizza slicer, an employee proceeded to return it to the pizza cutting table without sanitizing. — Sacbee.com, 9 Oct. 2026 Using reduced cream instead of part of the milk, and adding the milk a little at a time over a long period, and contnnually cleaning the Fons on the bottom of the pan. — Andy Baraghani, Bon Appetit Magazine, 9 Oct. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for cleaning

Verb

The company dispensed with its DEI disclosures to investors, scrubbing any references to goals and resources aimed at boosting diversity at the company.

— Mia Galuppo, HollywoodReporter, 12 Oct. 2026
Let everything sit on your toilet bowl for a while before scrubbing gently and finally flushing your toilet.

— Asia London Palomba, The Spruce, 27 Sep. 2026

Definition of scrubbing

Verb

Doctors then discussed removing his tongue, according to Rockett.

— Stephanie Nolasco, FOXNews.com, 18 Oct. 2026
The 71-year-old first American pope was admitted to the Gemelli hospital on Tuesday with doctors removing a nodule that was determined to be pulmonary adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer.

— Christopher Lamb, CNN Money, 17 Oct. 2026

Definition of removing

Verb

Employee was observed rinsing vegetables in the hand wash sink.

— NWA Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas Online, 19 Oct. 2026
Just after midnight on October 1, police say that video from the victim’s camera showed Wang rinsing out the victim’s coffee mug with a liquid from her own.

— Eduardo Cuevas, CNN Money, 17 Oct. 2026

Definition of rinsing

Verb

The towering spire at the heart of Limoges ultimately collapsed in flames, drawing cheers from the crowd below that were captured on video.

— Mithil Aggarwal, NBC news, 19 Oct. 2026
While the lack of regulation may be drawing users to prediction markets, the platform’s Wild West qualities may also prevent them from being reliable insurance proxies, Mitts argued.

— Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 19 Oct. 2026

Definition of drawing

Verb

The Falcon-Emirati model and related tools for speech recognition and extracting Arabic text from images and documents are relatively compact.

— Mohammed Sergie, semafor.com, 8 Oct. 2026
Over the past quarter century, foreign direct investment across sub-Saharan Africa has remained relatively flat—around two to three percent as a share of GDP—and most of it has gone to extracting oil, diamonds, and gold and other minerals.

— Jared Cohen, Foreign Affairs, 7 Oct. 2026

Definition of extracting

Verb

Upgrading to the Thrust Variant requires a $245,000 follow-up payment and adds SpaceX cold-gas rear thrusters alongside an active multi-mode fan system for downforce, cutting acceleration down to under a second.

— Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 16 Oct. 2026
And by cutting China off, Washington gave Beijing every reason to build its own alternatives.

— Nicholas Gordon, Fortune, 16 Oct. 2026