clean out

verb

cleaned out; cleaning out; cleans out

1

: to remove unwanted things from (a room, closet, etc.)

We spent the weekend cleaning out the garage.

2

informal : to steal or take everything from (someone or something)

The thieves broke in and cleaned out the store.

3

informal : to use up all or most of the money of (someone)

Buying the house really cleaned us out. Now we're broke.

Examples of clean out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Photos on Your Phone Digital cleanouts are just as important as physical ones, which is why Nancy Meck suggests using 10 minutes to clean out your phone’s camera roll. — Sarah Lyon, Southern Living, 10 Nov. 2026

Yet there’s an entire corner of the internet that’s apparently fascinated by what happens when they get cleaned out. — Sarah Kuta, Popular Science, 8 Nov. 2026

Clean Up the Garden Fall is a perfect time to clean out overgrown plants and prune back dead branches and stems. — Heather Bien, The Spruce, 31 Oct. 2026

OpenAI, Meta, Google, Instinct, and others promise their agents can scour the internet on your behalf, doing anything from booking a dinner reservation and cleaning out your inbox to buying new shoes. — Emma Roth, The Verge, 17 Oct. 2026

Rhymes for clean out

• about
• bailout
• blackout
• blowout
• breakout
• burnout
• buyout
• checkout
• closeout
• cutout
• devout
• dropout