vbl. sb. [f. CLEAN v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. CLEAN; freeing from dirt or filth, purifying, cleansing.
1662. Gerbier, Princ., Ep. Ded. The Cleaning of the Streets.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1698), I. xiii. 363. These Worms breed … in the Sea:… which was the reason of our Cleaning so often while we were there.
1843. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., I. 195. This house gets no periodic cleanings like other people’s.
Mod. It was their Spring cleaning, that complete overhauling which every well-ordered house gets once a year.
b. with adv., as cleaning up.
1873. G. A. Lawrence, Silverland, 177 (Hoppe). The ‘cleaning up’ … consists in removing the pavement and blocks from the bed of the sluice, gathering the precious compost, and replacing or renewing the blocks and stones of the pavement.
1883. Stevenson, Silverado Sq. (1886), 16. The pasture would bear a little further cleaning up.
2. concr. in pl. Cf. sweeepings.
1855. Kingsley, Westw. Ho! III. iii. 46. Just keep in our wake, and we’ll give you the cleanings for wages.
3. = CLEANSING vbl. sb. 2 b.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 37. The cleaning applied helps ulcers in the face. Ibid., 71. The cleaning is eaten by them presently after bringing forth.
a. 1722. in Lisle, Husb. (E. D. S.), Cleaning, the placenta of a cow.
1876. in Whitby Gloss.
1879. in Shropshire Word-bk.
4. attrib. and Comb., as cleaning-machine, -mill, -shed, -sieve.
c. 1475. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 808. Hoc colatorium, a clenyngsefe.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., Cleaning-machine, a machine in which silk thread is … drawn through a brush in order to detach any particles of dust or dirt therefrom.
1884. Daily News, 4 Sept., 3/2. A serious accident…. At the cleaning sheds on the Carr.
