English · Idiom Candidate

clean up one's act

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Improve one's behavior or performance

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

cải thiện hành vi hoặc hiệu suất

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: remove dirt or mess

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

He needs to clean up his act if he wants to keep his job

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “clean up one's act” mean?

Improve one's behavior or performance Literally: remove dirt or mess

Is “clean up one's act” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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