Forms: 1 clǽnlíc, 4 clenlich, clanli, 5–7 clenly, -lie, 6 clene-, cleanely, (clendly), 5– cleanly. [OE. clǽnlíc, f. clǽne, CLEAN + líc body: lit. ‘clean-bodied,’ having cleanness as a personal characteristic. See -LY1. It appears to have been first used of moral or spiritual purity, and thence extended to certain senses of CLEAN, but its main sense still refers to habit and tendency rather than to actual state: a cleanly person may be for the moment dirty, but will as soon as possible make himself clean.]
† 1. Morally or spiritually clean; pure; innocent. Obs.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxi. Sin hiʓ scipas ʓesamnaþ mid clænlicre lufe.
a. 1000. Boeth. Metr., xi. 183. Clænlice lufe.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 26354 (Fairf.). Of shrift clanli.
1477. Norton, Ord. Alch., iv. in Ashm. (1652), 47. The honds of a cleanly Clerke.
1641. Milton, Animadv., vi. Wks. (1847), 72/2. Your priest … that thinks himself the purer, or the cleanlier in his office for his new-washed surplice.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., Introd. b 2 b (J.). Humane nature meets few more sweetly relishing and cleanly joyes, then those, that derive from the happy issues of successful Tryals.
1683. Penn. Archives, I. 73. A man of so sober, so cleanly, and so approved a Behaviour.
† 2. Clean: as clothes, or the like. (Possibly the sense may sometimes have been clean-looking.)
1340. Ayenb., 216. He zayþ þet hi ssolle habbe clenliche cloþinge.
c. 1460. Launfal, 201. Me fawtede … Clenly brech and scherte.
1488. Will Sir E. Shea (Somerset Ho.). A clenly dore of Iron for to open and shette.
1545. Raynold, Byrth Mankynde, Y 6. Although that this superfluyte be no[t] clendly, yet [etc.].
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. iii. 40. By her cleanly garment catching hold.
3. Of persons (or beasts): Addicted to cleanness, habitually clean; careful to avoid filth.
c. 1500. Doctr. Gd. Servauntes, xxvii. in Poet. Tracts (1842), 5. Seruauntes ought … For to be clenly of their bodyes.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal’s Sat., XI. 119–20 (J.).
| Next that, shall Mountain Sparagus be laid, | |
| Pull’d by some plain, but cleanly Country-Maid. |
1713. Addison, Guardian, No. 156, ¶ 5 (J.). An ant … is a very cleanly insect.
1748. Anson, Voy., II. ii. 135. It was imagined, that by living apart, they would be much cleanlier.
1885. C. Monkhouse, in Mag. Art, Sept., 471/1. [Dutch tiles] were found convenient by a proverbially cleanly people.
b. Also of personal belongings: Habitually kept clean.
1653. Walton, Angler, 47. An honest cleanly Alehouse that I know right well. Ibid., 49. A cleanly room, Lavender in the windowes.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 196. Displays her cleanly platter on the board.
4. Conducing to or promoting cleanness.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XXII. 135. In times of cleanly peace.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. i. I. i. (1651), 3. A cleanly diet.
c. 1720. Prior, Poems (1725), II. 104 (J.).
| In our Fantastic Climes the Fair | |
| With cleanly Powder dry their Hair. |
1794. Southey, Retrospect. The due observance of the cleanly law.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. xix. (1865). They eat … with indifference, calmness, and cleanly circumstances.
† 5. Of actions: Neatly executed, adroit, dexterous, clever, deft, artful; = CLEAN a. 11. Obs.
c. 1540. in Fisher’s Wks. (E.E.T.S.), II. Introd. 46. [The kinge] thought it a … cleanly excuse to aleadge the trooble of his conscience.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., I. (1584), 13 b. Hir husband by and by (Because she should not search too neare) deuisd a cleanelie lie.
1591. Spenser, M. Hubberd, 857. Each practise ill Of coosinage and cleanly knauerie.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, I. xi. (1840), 18. This cleanly … conveyance to rid away those he hated.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1727), 85. By a cleanly conveyance under the table to slip a short note in Lewis’s hand.
† b. Deft in action, clever, smart. Obs.
1586. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, I. viii. (Arb.), 32. For euery hundreth verses (which a cleanely pen could speedely dispatch) he had a hundred angels.
† 6. Of language, etc.: Neat, elegant; = CLEAN a. 7. Obs.
1579. Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 79. He concludeth in fine Latine and cleanly termes.
1649. Milton, Eikon., vi. (1770), 75. The words are good, the fiction smooth and cleanly.
7. Comb., as cleanly-looking.
1828. Manchester Times, 12 Dec., No. 9, 69/3. Amongst the applicants, was a very decently clad, and cleanly-looking female.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., xix. 366. Houses with many cleanly-looking half-caste Portuguese standing in from of them to salute us.
