| / English Dictionary |
CLEANLINESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Diligence in keeping clean
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("cleanliness" is a kind of...):
trait (a distinguishing feature of your personal nature)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cleanliness"):
fastidiousness (the trait of being meticulous about matters of taste or style)
neatness; tidiness (the trait of being neat and orderly)
Antonym:
uncleanliness (lack of cleanly habits)
Derivation:
cleanly (habitually clean)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The habit of keeping free of superficial imperfections
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("cleanliness" is a kind of...):
habit; use ((psychology) an automatic pattern of behavior in reaction to a specific situation; may be inherited or acquired through frequent repetition)
Context examples:
Temperance, industry, exercise, and cleanliness, are the lessons equally enjoined to the young ones of both sexes: and my master thought it monstrous in us, to give the females a different kind of education from the males, except in some articles of domestic management; whereby, as he truly observed, one half of our natives were good for nothing but bringing children into the world; and to trust the care of our children to such useless animals, he said, was yet a greater instance of brutality.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I only recollect that underneath some white covering on the bed, with a beautiful cleanliness and freshness all around it, there seemed to me to lie embodied the solemn stillness that was in the house; and that when she would have turned the cover gently back, I cried: Oh no! oh no! and held her hand.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
One day, in discourse, my master, having heard me mention the nobility of my country, was pleased to make me a compliment which I could not pretend to deserve: that he was sure I must have been born of some noble family, because I far exceeded in shape, colour, and cleanliness, all the Yahoos of his nation, although I seemed to fail in strength and agility, which must be imputed to my different way of living from those other brutes; and besides I was not only endowed with the faculty of speech, but likewise with some rudiments of reason, to a degree that, with all his acquaintance, I passed for a prodigy.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
It was not that he looked many years older, though still dressed with the old scrupulous cleanliness; or that there was an unwholesome ruddiness upon his face; or that his eyes were full and bloodshot; or that there was a nervous trembling in his hand, the cause of which I knew, and had for some years seen at work.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
But I could have easily vindicated humankind from the imputation of singularity upon the last article, if there had been any swine in that country (as unluckily for me there were not), which, although it may be a sweeter quadruped than a Yahoo, cannot, I humbly conceive, in justice, pretend to more cleanliness; and so his honour himself must have owned, if he had seen their filthy way of feeding, and their custom of wallowing and sleeping in the mud.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I would not have dwelt so long upon a circumstance that, perhaps, at first sight, may appear not very momentous, if I had not thought it necessary to justify my character, in point of cleanliness, to the world; which, I am told, some of my maligners have been pleased, upon this and other occasions, to call in question.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Thus the young ladies are as much ashamed of being cowards and fools as the men, and despise all personal ornaments, beyond decency and cleanliness: neither did I perceive any difference in their education made by their difference of sex, only that the exercises of the females were not altogether so robust; and that some rules were given them relating to domestic life, and a smaller compass of learning was enjoined them: for their maxim is, that among peoples of quality, a wife should be always a reasonable and agreeable companion, because she cannot always be young.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
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