squeaky clean

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.

See also: clean, squeaky

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, 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.

See also: clean, squeaky

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.

See also: clean, squeaky

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.

See also: clean, squeaky

McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.