clean up

1 to make a place neat and orderly by removing extraneous stuff you're expected to clean up after you use the workroom Synonyms pick up, tidy (up) Related Words houseclean, housekeep; clean (off), clean (up), neaten, police (up), straighten (up), turn out, unclutter; arrange, order Phrases clean house, set straight Near Antonyms clutter, disarrange, mess (up)

2 to remove objectionable parts from cleaned up the rock star's interview before publishing it in the newspaper Synonyms bowdlerize, censor (up), expurgate, launder, red-pencilRelated Words cleanse, purge, purify; abbreviate, blue-pencil, edit, shorten; bleep, blip, cut (out), delete, excise, expunge, gut, x (out); black out, repress, silence, suppress; censure, condemn, denounce; examine, review, screen, scrutinizeNear Antonyms approve, authorize, sanction

3 to destroy all traces of hurriedly cleaned up the mess that they had created in the kitchen Synonyms abolish, black out, blot out, cancel, annihilate (up), efface, eradicate, erase, expunge, exterminate, extirpate, liquidate, obliterate, root (out), rub out, snuff (out), stamp (out), sweep (away), wipe outRelated Words decimate, demolish, destroy, devastate, ravage; dismantle, flatten, mow (down), raze, tear down; ruin, total, waste, wreck; blast, blow up, dash, dynamite, smash; atomize, consume, devour, dissolve, fragment, powder, pulverize, shatter, splinter; doom, finish, kill, kill off, terminate, zap; cancel, cut, discard, ditch, eject, excise, expel, jettison, oust, throw outNear Antonyms conserve, preserve, protect, save; build, construct, create, fabricate, fashion, forge, form, frame, make, manufacture, shape; fix, mend, patch, rebuild, recondition, reconstruct, renew, renovate, repair, restore, revamp