Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The cleaning and tidying of a house and its contents.
- noun Informal Removal of unwanted personnel, methods, or policies in an effort at reform or improvement.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Collectively, the tasks involved with cleaning a house; the practice of cleaning a house.
- verb Present participle of
houseclean .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the act of cleaning the rooms and furnishings of a house
- noun (figurative) the act of reforming by the removal of unwanted personnel or practices or conditions
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In more modern times, thanks to Betty Friedan and her followers, housecleaning is deemed total drudgery and demeaning work -- something that evidently should be relegated to the untouchable class of India.
January Organizing and Housecleaning Linda 2008
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The book Cold Sassy Tree briefly discusses the variations in housecleaning in the North and the South of the U.S.
Cleaning: Northern and Southern Style? Linda 2008
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The book Cold Sassy Tree briefly discusses the variations in housecleaning in the North and the South of the U.S.
Archive 2008-01-01 Linda 2008
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In more modern times, thanks to Betty Friedan and her followers, housecleaning is deemed total drudgery and demeaning work -- something that evidently should be relegated to the untouchable class of India.
Archive 2008-01-01 Linda 2008
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Major housecleaning is expected, and needed, and this could be a source of bargains in 2002.
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Martha was a housekeeper – she reveled in housecleaning – she had
In Times Like These 1915
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I had been part of large "housecleaning" - a term that always makes me feel like a sad little stray dust ball under the desk.
Lisa Reswick: Take Your Daughter to the Unemployment Office Day 2008
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That and fall housecleaning, which is always a busy time of washing down the walls, shining windows, and whatnot.
Covenant Lewis, Beverly 2002
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Anything that interrupts the ordinary flow of life, introduces into it, in short, a social cyclone that upsets everything for a fortnight, may in time be as hard to bear as that festival of housewives called housecleaning, that riot of cleanliness which men fear as they do
Complete Essays Charles Dudley Warner 1864
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Anything that interrupts the ordinary flow of life, introduces into it, in short, a social cyclone that upsets everything for a fortnight, may in time be as hard to bear as that festival of housewives called housecleaning, that riot of cleanliness which men fear as they do
As We Were Saying Charles Dudley Warner 1864
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