cleaner

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkliː.nə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkli.nɚ/
• Rhymes: -iːnə(ɹ)

Inherited from Middle English clener, clenere, equivalent to clean +‎ -er (agent noun suffix).

cleaner (plural cleaners)

2. A person whose occupation is to clean things, especially rooms, floors, and windows.

   Hyponyms: housecleaner, window cleaner

   • 1952 February, J. Pelham Maitland, “Locomotive Working on Sussex Branches Fifty Years Ago”, in Railway Magazine, page 84:

     The cleaner worked, of course, at nights. He had to coal and light up the engine, as well as clean it, for the next day's work, which commenced with a light run to Barnham to "bring in the goods" from that station at about 6.30 a.m.

4. A device that cleans, such as the vacuum cleaner.
6. A substance used for cleaning; especially, one retailed for that purpose and meant for use on things other than one's own body.

   Synonym: cleaning agent (sometimes hypernymous)

   Hyponyms: all-purpose cleaner, glass cleaner, scouring powder, window cleaner

   Coordinate terms: soap, detergent

   Near-synonym: cleaning fluid

8. (in the plural) A professional laundry or dry cleaner (business).

   I'll have to take this shirt to the cleaners.

9. (informal, idiomatic) A fixer; a person who disposes of bodies and evidence.

• In regards to sense 4, this form is now interpreted as plural and usually spelled without an apostrophe, even in official usage, to justify the removal of the apostrophe. It was traditionally spelled cleaner's with an apostrophe because this is grammatically correct, as can be seen with forms such as go to the doctor's, which cannot be reinterpreted as plural.

• (sense 3) cleanser
• take to the cleaners

Inherited from Middle English clener, clenner, clanner, clannere, from Old English clǣnra, clǣnre (“cleaner, purer, clearer”), from Proto-West Germanic *klainiʀō (“daintier, more delicate”), from Proto-Germanic *klainizô (“shinier, finer, more splendid”), equivalent to clean +‎ -er.

cleaner

1. comparative form of clean: more clean

• Carlene, reclean

From English clean +‎ -er.

• IPA^(key): /kli.ne/
• Rhymes: -e

cleaner

1. (Quebec, anglicism) to clean