[f. CLEAN v. + -ER1.] One who or that which cleans; spec. one whose work is to clean some particular thing.
a. 1792. Sir J. Reynolds, Journ. Flanders, Wks. 1797, II. 56 (R.). Whenever one sees a picture of Rubens that wants union, it may be justly suspected that it has been in the hand of some picture-cleaner, by whom it has been retouched.
1817. J. Scott, Paris Revisit., 383. A tribe of cleaners, keepers, and porters.
1884. Daily News, 4 Sept., 3/2. A cleaner … had been attending to a Lancashire and Yorkshire engine at the cleaning sheds.
b. An instrument or machine for cleaning; as the two-handled knife employed by curriers, one of the rollers in a carding machine, etc.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., s.v. Cleaner, The worker … takes the fibre from the card-drum and delivers it to the cleaner, which returns it to the card-drum.
1888. Daily News, 10 Sept., 7/3. Mincers, coffee mills, and fork cleaners.
