clean out

phrasal 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

Additionally, here are some tips to safely clean out a flooded home. —Cailey Gleeson, jsonline.com, 11 Aug. 2025

Tackling your clean out prior to the changing of seasons offers a few key benefits. —Sarah Lyon, Southern Living, 3 Aug. 2025

Sleep stations — McClain, Ayers, and Onishi cleaned out the air ducts leading into their crew quarters in the Harmony module. —Robert Z. Pearlman, Space.com, 1 Aug. 2025

Avoid this by cleaning out and destroying old plant debris in fall and keeping diseased plant matter out of compost piles. —Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 26 July 2025

Rhymes for clean out

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