Meaning & use
deep clean
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To clean something very thoroughly, including areas that are hidden, rarely reached or heavily dirty.
Grammar: Takes an object: deep clean the oven.
Patterns
- deep clean something
- deep clean a room
We deep clean the kitchen every spring, even behind the fridge.
The hospital will deep clean the ward after the outbreak.
She deep cleaned the carpet before the guests arrived.
nouncountable
A very thorough cleaning of a place or item, going beyond regular upkeep.
Grammar: Often with a: the house needs a deep clean.
Patterns
- a deep clean of something
- give something a deep clean
The apartment needed a deep clean before the new tenants moved in.
The restaurant closed for a day to give the kitchen a deep clean.
A deep clean of the bathroom took the whole afternoon.
Word forms
| third person singular | deep cleans |
|---|---|
| past tense | deep cleaned |
| -ing form | deep cleaning |
| plural | deep cleans |
Common combinations
- give something a deep clean
- This weekend I will give the fridge a deep clean.
- deep clean the kitchen
- They deep clean the kitchen every Sunday night.
- professional deep clean
- We booked a professional deep clean before moving out.
- deep clean carpets
- This machine can deep clean carpets without soaking them.
- schedule a deep clean
- The school will schedule a deep clean during the holiday.
Synonyms and how they differ
- scrub
- Scrub means to rub hard with a brush, which may be part of a deep clean but covers only the action, not the whole thorough job.
- spring-clean
- Spring-clean, especially British, is a thorough clean of a whole home at a set time of year, while deep clean can happen any time.
- sanitize
- Sanitize focuses on killing germs, not removing all dirt.
- scour
- Scour means to clean something by hard rubbing, usually pots or surfaces, and is narrower than a whole deep clean.
Opposites
Word family
- clean verb
- to remove dirt
- cleaner noun
- a person or product that cleans
- deep-cleaning noun
- the activity of thorough cleaning
- cleanliness noun
- the state of being clean
Commonly confused: deep clean or disinfect?
deep clean vs disinfect
Disinfect means to kill germs with a chemical. A deep clean removes dirt, grease and grime, and it may or may not include disinfecting.
Practice
The landlord asked us to ___ the apartment before we handed back the keys.
Choose one answer.
Deep clean means to clean thoroughly, which suits a handover. Skim over and rub off do not take apartment as an object in that sense, and clean up with needs another object.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “deep clean”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.