to clean out
Preserved but no longer current.
To purify, to make tidy. Also, to win another's money till his pocket is quite empty; to impoverish him of everything. De Quincey says that Richard Bentley, after his lawsuit with Dr. Colbatch, "must have been pretty well cleaned out.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “to clean out” mean?
To purify, to make tidy. Also, to win another's money till his pocket is quite empty; to impoverish him of everything. De Quincey says that Richard Bentley, after his lawsuit with Dr. Colbatch, "must have been pretty well cleaned out.
Is “to clean out” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.