# cleaner

Pronunciation: US say "KLEE-nur" /ˈkli.nɚ/; UK say "KLEE-nuh" /ˈkliː.nə/

## Noun

1. Someone employed to do cleaning, particularly of rooms, floors, and windows in buildings.
   - Simple: A person whose job is to clean rooms, floors, windows, and other places.
   - _The hotel employs several cleaners for its hundreds of guest rooms._
   - _A cleaner comes to scrub the storefront windows every spring._
2. A substance used for cleaning, especially one sold for that purpose and meant for use on objects rather than the body.
   - Simple: A liquid or powder used to clean things like floors, dishes, or clothes.
   - _The bottle of cleaner warned against mixing it with bleach._
   - _Industrial cleaners can strip paint as easily as they lift dirt._
3. A piece of equipment that removes dirt or similar unwanted material, such as a vacuum cleaner.
   - Simple: A machine that cleans, such as a vacuum that picks up dust from floors.
   - _The robotic cleaner navigated around the furniture on its own._
   - _He emptied the cleaner's dust container after vacuuming the stairs._
5. A business that launders or dry-cleans clothing and other items for paying customers.
   - Simple: A shop that washes or dry-cleans clothes for people.
   - _She picked up her coat from the cleaner before the trip._
   - _Several cleaners in town now offer same-day service._
6. A fixer hired to dispose of bodies and remove the evidence of a crime. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A person hired to get rid of dead bodies and evidence after a crime.
   - _After the shooting, they brought in a cleaner to erase every trace._
   - _The cleaner wiped down the apartment and removed the body before dawn._

## Adjective

4. Comparative form of clean. — comparative form of clean: more clean
   - Simple: Comparative form of clean. Use it to say one thing has less dirt than another.
   - _The filtered water tasted cleaner than the water from the tap._
   - _Mountain air feels cleaner than the air downtown._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–3, 5–6** — Inherited from Middle English clener or clenere, equivalent to "clean" plus the agent-noun suffix "-er".
**Meaning 4** — Inherited from Middle English clener, clenner, from Old English clǣnra, clǣnre ("cleaner, purer, clearer"), from Proto-West Germanic *klainiʀō ("daintier, more delicate") and Proto-Germanic *klainizô ("shinier, finer, more splendid"); equivalent to "clean" plus "-er".

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/cleaner (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).