cleaning (out)

verb

present participle of clean (out)
as in defrauding

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for cleaning (out)
  1. defrauding
  2. shortchanging
  3. cheating
Verb
  • Evans, 34, comes from a wealthy San Diego hotel family and stood by Holmes as her blood-testing startup Theranos collapsed and she was convicted in 2022 of defrauding investors.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Holmes was about to begin an 11-year sentence at a federal prison in Bryan, Texas, for defrauding investors in her blood-testing company, Theranos, of hundreds of millions of dollars.
    — Alex Barasch, Vulture, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of defrauding
Verb
  • The sixth season has been able to have its cake and eat it, too, ramping up the action without shortchanging viewers on spy craft and intrigue.
    — Scott Tobias, Vulture, 21 Oct. 2026
  • What’s worse is the scene that follows, revealing the clean-up of multiple bodies and an elaborate rewriting of the narrative that strains credulity to put it mildly, not to mention shortchanging the Mexican characters.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of shortchanging
Verb
  • With all respect to West’s previous cheating-on-television canon, War might be his finest adulterous work.
    — Elise Taylor, Vanity Fair, 24 Oct. 2026
  • Wood was vindicated three years later, when a league investigation revealed the Astros had been cheating in 2017, stealing signs from a television monitor next to the dugout and relaying them to batters by banging on trash cans.
    — Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 23 Oct. 2026
Definition of cheating
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.

Browse Nearby Words

cleaning (off)
cleaning (out)
cleaning (up)
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Cite this Entry

“Cleaning (out).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cleaning%20%28out%29. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

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