cleaning

• IPA^(key): /ˈkliːnɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːnɪŋ

cleaning

1. present participle and gerund of clean

cleaning (countable and uncountable, plural cleanings)

1. (gerund of clean) The process of making something clean.
   • 2009 January 13, Jane E. Brody, “New Thinking on How to Protect the Heart”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     So good dental hygiene, with regular periodontal cleanings, can help protect your heart as well as your teeth.

   • 2021, David F. Lambert, Free to a Good Home:

     Like me, it's old, slow, loud, unsophisticated, underpowered, and in bad need of a good cleaning .

2. The afterbirth of cows, ewes, etc.
   • 1844, Henry Stephens, The Book of Farm:

     The risk which the cow runs, after slinking, is in not getting quit of the cleaning, or afterbirth, or placenta […]

• elancing, enlacing