CLEANLINESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does cleanliness mean? 

• CLEANLINESS (noun)
  The noun CLEANLINESS has 2 senses:

1. the habit of keeping free of superficial imperfections

2. diligence in keeping clean

  Familiarity information: CLEANLINESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CLEANLINESS (noun)

Sense 1

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)

Sense 2

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)

 Context examples 

The science of health, and the practice of cleanliness that promotes good health and well-being.

(Hygiene, NCI Dictionary)

“Another thing he wondered at in the Yahoos, was their strange disposition to nastiness and dirt; whereas there appears to be a natural love of cleanliness in all other animals.”

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

On everything there was the same air of retirement and cleanliness that marked the house outside.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The garment itself did not bear out the assertion, nor did the accumulations of grease on stove and pot and pan attest a general cleanliness.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Even on Sunday, when it veiled its more florid charms and lay comparatively empty of passage, the street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fire in a forest; and with its freshly painted shutters, well-polished brasses, and general cleanliness and gaiety of note, instantly caught and pleased the eye of the passenger.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He was drunken in new and more profound ways—with Ruth, who had fired him with love and with a glimpse of higher and eternal life; with books, that had set a myriad maggots of desire gnawing in his brain; and with the sense of personal cleanliness he was achieving, that gave him even more superb health than what he had enjoyed and that made his whole body sing with physical well-being.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

What a strange, unaccountable character!—for with all these symptoms of profligacy at ten years old, she had neither a bad heart nor a bad temper, was seldom stubborn, scarcely ever quarrelsome, and very kind to the little ones, with few interruptions of tyranny; she was moreover noisy and wild, hated confinement and cleanliness, and loved nothing so well in the world as rolling down the green slope at the back of the house.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Otherwise the staid old house was, as to its cleanliness and order, still just as it had been when I first saw it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He was convinced (as he afterwards told me) that I must be a Yahoo; but my teachableness, civility, and cleanliness, astonished him; which were qualities altogether opposite to those animals.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It was quite spotless in its cleanliness.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)