clean up — make clean
phrasal verbB1IELTS 5+neutralcommon
To make a place or thing tidy and free from dirt or mess.
Say it like a native
Textbook Please restore the kitchen to a clean and tidy condition.
Native Can you clean up the kitchen?
'Clean up' is the everyday verb; 'restore to a clean and tidy condition' is absurdly formal.
Pattern: clean up (something) | clean (something) up
In use
- We need to clean up the kitchen after dinner.daily life
- In my opinion, it's important for everyone in the family to help clean up the house because it teaches responsibility.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ I'll clean up it later.
✓ I'll clean it up later.
With a pronoun, the object goes in the middle: 'clean it up'.
Common collocations
clean up + mess— the mess, after yourself, the kitchen, the spill
Don't confuse it
Not the same as 'clean', which can mean just removing dirt from something specific.
Related
- clean up (make a large profit) — Another meaning of 'clean up' is 'make a large profit'; compare the examples to keep the meanings separate.