squeaky clean
1. Completely clean. This shower needs to be squeaky clean before Grandma gets here.
2. Completely innocent and upstanding. She's such a sweet girl that I just assumed she was squeaky clean—I had no idea she had a police record! They've been trying to dig up any dirt they can find on the candidate, but he's coming up squeaky clean.
the squeaky wheel gets oiled
The people complaining or protesting the loudest or most frequently are the ones who will receive the most attention from others. My sister makes a point of writing letters of complaint to businesses whenever she has an issue with their service, and nine times out of ten, she's rewarded with some kind of discount or gift. I guess it's true—the squeaky wheel gets oiled. I try to support all my departments and employees equally, but squeaky wheels get oiled—it's unavoidable.
the squeaky wheel gets the grease
proverb The person complaining or protesting the loudest or most frequently is the one who will receive the most attention from others. My sister makes a point of writing letters of complaint to businesses whenever she has an issue with their service, and nine times out of ten, she's rewarded with some kind of discount or gift. I guess it's true, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
the squeaky wheel gets the oil
proverb The person complaining or protesting the loudest or most frequently is the one who will receive the most attention from others. My sister makes a point of writing letters of complaint to businesses whenever she has an issue with their service, and nine times out of ten, she's rewarded with some kind of discount or gift. I guess it's true, the squeaky wheel gets the oil.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
squeaking wheel gets the oil
and squeaky wheel gets the oilProv. People who complain the most will get attention or what they want. If you don't get good service at the hotel, make sure to tell the manager that you're dissatisfied. The squeaking wheel gets the oil.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
squeaky wheel gets the grease
The loudest complaints get the most attention, as in No matter what table they give her, Helen generally insists on a better one and gets it-the squeaky wheel gets the grease . The current version of this idiom, with its allusion to a wagon wheel that needs oiling, is ascribed to American humorist Josh Billings (1818-1885) in a poem, "The Kicker": "I hate to be a kicker [complainer], I always long for peace, But the wheel that does the squeaking Is the one that gets the grease." However, the idea of the idiom is much older. A manuscript from about 1400 had: "Ever the worst spoke of the cart creaks." Similar sayings were repeated over the succeeding centuries.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
squeaky clean
COMMON If someone is squeaky clean, they live a very good life and never seem to do anything bad or illegal. Of all boy bands, they had the most wholesome and squeaky clean image. As a country-dweller myself, I can truthfully say that not all people living in the countryside are as squeaky clean as they like to think. Note: You can also use squeaky-clean before a noun. Claudia's squeaky-clean image makes her the perfect children's television presenter. Neither singer has a squeaky-clean reputation. Note: This expression is often used to suggest that this way of life is unnatural or uninteresting, or that someone is not as good as they seem. Note: Clean surfaces sometimes squeak when you wipe or rub them.
the squeaky wheel gets the grease
AMERICAN, INFORMALPeople say the squeaky wheel gets the grease to mean that people who complain loudly get attention. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Council is listening to the small minority of people who scream loudest.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
squeaky clean
beyond reproach; without vice. The expression originally refers literally to a surface so clean that it squeaks when a finger is rubbed across it.
2001 Sonia El Kahal Business in the Asia Pacific The quality of government is corrupt in Indonesia, squeaky clean in Singapore, and in-between elsewhere.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
the squeaky wheel gets the ˈgrease/ˈoil
(American English) used to say that a person who complains or talks a lot gets most attention: In politics, the squeaky wheel gets the grease so it is vital for consumers to speak up and be heard. ♢ It’s the squeaky wheel that gets the oil, but what about the shy student?Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
squeaky clean
mod. very clean. (Like a clean glass that squeaks when one rubs a finger on it.) I got this floor squeaky clean. Don’t spill anything on it.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
squeaky wheel gets the grease, the
The loudest complainer usually obtains the most attention. This allusion to a wagon wheel that needs lubrication appears in a nineteenth-century poem attributed to the American humorist Josh Billings. Entitled “The Kicker” (i.e., The Complainer), it goes, “I hate to be a kicker, I always long for peace, But the wheel that does the squeaking is the one that gets the grease.” However, this idea had been similarly expressed in various early proverb collections. “He who greases his Wheels, helps his Oxen” occurs in Thomas Fuller’s collection (1732), and “A wheel badly greased creaks” in Alfred Henderson’s (1830).
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer