CLEANING UP Synonyms: 139 Similar and Opposite Words

cleaning (up)

verb

present participle of clean (up)

as in tidying (up)

to make a place neat and orderly by removing extraneous stuff you're expected to clean up after you use the workroom

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as in censoring

to remove objectionable parts from cleaned up the rock star's interview before publishing it in the newspaper

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as in eradicating

to destroy all traces of hurriedly cleaned up the mess that they had created in the kitchen

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Recent Examples of Synonyms for cleaning (up)

Verb

Henderson sent several texts to a partner at DTLA about picking up checks for his work in Val Verde, according to messages reviewed by The Times.

— Rebecca Ellis, Los Angeles Times, 12 July 2026
Later in the second half, Olise teed up Ousmane Dembele with prodded outside-of-the-boot passes after picking up loose balls in front of the defence.

— Thom Harris, New York Times, 4 July 2026

Definition of picking up

Verb

Aguirre’s interviews are carefully edited with bleeps, censoring the ‘cabr—s’, the ‘hijos de p—s’ and ‘carambas’.

— Colin Millar, New York Times, 4 July 2026
Vance asserted that the 2020 election was rigged due to tech companies censoring information.

— Britta Miller, The Washington Examiner, 27 June 2026

Definition of censoring

Verb

This is a sector that’s helped solve civilizational challenges like eradicating smallpox and lifting more than a billion people out of extreme poverty.

— Max Simkoff, Fortune, 7 Aug. 2026
This new war on poverty seems intent on increasing it, not eradicating it.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 6 Aug. 2026

Definition of eradicating

Verb

Programs can respond by shortening the distance between earning and redeeming.

— Jeff Fromm, Forbes.com, 6 Aug. 2026
This allows new chip layouts to be fabricated immediately after design completion, eliminating the need to manufacture masks for every design iteration and significantly shortening research and development cycles.

— Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 25 July 2026

Definition of shortening

Verb

Reading scores of New York City public school students plummeted this past school year, erasing improvements in the subject recorded a year before, sparking calls from the teachers’ union for a change in approach.

— Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News, 7 Aug. 2026
The record-setting Warriors were only a few months removed from erasing a 3-1 series deficit to eliminate Durant’s Thunder in the Western Conference finals.

— Devon Henderson, New York Times, 2 Aug. 2026

Definition of erasing

Verb

Shares slumped 16% for a third straight session of losses, wiping out $400 billion in market cap on Monday alone.

— Gail Krishnan, CNBC, 23 June 2026
The prospect of even a mini-Dust Bowl is alarming as the original disaster during the Great Depression sent dust clouds across rural America, wiping out entire communities and triggering mass migration to other parts of the country.

— Jason Ma, Fortune, 21 June 2026

Definition of wiping out

Verb

Walker-Yeager, who ran on abolishing or significantly reducing residents and seniors’ property tax burdens, historic preservation and increasing the state minimum wage, had 124 votes.

— Sofi Zeman, Kansas City Star, 5 Aug. 2026
As a vigil for the deceased grew, some messages called for abolishing ICE.

— Allen Devlin, CBS News, 4 Aug. 2026

Definition of abolishing

Verb

For a few minutes at each end of that window, the moon’s edge will appear to align with that of the sun, blotting out the star’s fierce light and revealing the wispy corona off to one side.

— Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 6 Apr. 2026
From up in the space shuttle, in 1983, astronaut Sally Ride could see the pollution blotting out her Los Angeles hometown.

— Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 26 Mar. 2026

Definition of blotting out

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.

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Style

“Cleaning (up).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cleaning%20%28up%29. Accessed 12 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of cleaning (up)

verb

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