Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to thrash; to break up.

1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress xviii: Ulysses is here obliged to require an oath from the standers-by, that they will not deal him a sly knock, while he is cleaning out the mumper.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1869		Leavenworth Times and Conservative 28 Sept. in Miller & Snell Why the West was Wild 191: Strangham and a number of his companions being ‘wolfing’ all night, wished to conclude by cleaning out a beer saloon and breaking things generally.
1876		in J.G. Rosa Wild Bill Hickok Gunfighter (2001) 69: [Newspaper report 18 Sept.] With his knife he finished two of them and the other ran out. He thus cleaned out a gang which was the terror of the country, and did it saving a woman.
1963		H.S. Thompson letter 19 Nov. in Proud Highway (1997) 416: There’s nothing I’ll like better [...] than to gather some of my ham-fisted friends from McSorley’s and clean out your whole damn office.
1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 16: Cleaned out, adj. Whipped, beaten.

2. to rob.

1825		Age (London) 31 July 94/3: Ned Stockman is [...] on a charge of having assisted in cleaning out his friend Mr Richard Crouch, to the tune of £352 flimsey.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford II 3: One justice of peace, who had been particularly active, was himself entirely ‘cleaned out’ by an old gentleman who [...] offered to conduct the unsuspicious magistrate to the very spot where the miscreants might be seized.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 58: He got beargred, and I cleaned out his cly of the small change.
1858		Broadway Belle (NY) 6 Nov. n.p.: The prudent young lady took possession of her sleeping friend’s watch, pocket-book and [...] loose change [...]; in fact, she ‘cleaned him out’ entirely.
1866		Wild Boys of London I 154/2: ‘I ain’t got much left,’ he said, after he had felt his pockets. ‘Somebody’s been and cleaned me out beautifully.’.
1871		Galaxy (N.Y.) Mar. 196: There is a big watch movement factory here and [...] I have beat it already for a little but I’m waiting for some good pal to help me clean it out .
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 37: We-alls owes for his nailin’ them hoss-thiefs when they tried to clean out the corral.
1902		Guilelmensian (Williams Coll.) 289: He got a job in a Bank and cleaned it out in six Months. When he got through with the Ball and Chain at Sing Sing [etc.].
1906		Kansas Hist. Society IX 536: Loaded with budge, a certain individual cleaned out a house [...] The individual has never drank a drop since [DA].
1936		R. Chandler ‘Goldfish’ in Red Wind (1946) 148: [He] cleaned out the registered mail.
1949		A. Hynd We Are the Public Enemies 66: That night, the Barrow brothers and Jones broke into the Enid Armory and cleaned it out.
1953		W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 45: When he was asleep they cleaned him out. They got his wallet, some jewelry, his clothing, and a typewriter.
1961		M. Braly Felony Tank (1962) 127: These broads probably have some loot around here. We’ll clean them out too.
1992		S. Armitage ‘Brassneck’ in Kid 6: When we’re on the ball / we can clean someone out from a comb to a coin.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Real Life 6 June 1: They cleaned out his wedding presents and savings.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] We hit the garage and cleaned it out.
2012		T. Piccirilli Last Kind Words 7: He hadn’t taken anything, hadn’t even cleaned out the register at the gas station.

3. (also clean) to ruin financially or materially.

1827		T. Morton School For Grown Children IV i: Last night Dexter cleaned him out.
1838		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 10 Feb. 116: What, you think I’m as big a fool as my messmate, Joe Sprig, as you managed to clean out of eighteen month’s tip, his votch, chain, seals, and all, do you?
1849		Sam Sly 5 May 1/1: The ‘hells’ of Leicester-square[...] and other places, are well known to be places where swindling in all its hideous shapes is unblushingly carried on; and if a party chooses to be fool enough to venture within their precincts [...] and if he gets ‘cleaned out’ it is nothing more than he has a right to expect.
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 22 Sept. 4/1: [title] Cleaned Out! [...] Oh! think not my pockets are always as light, / And as free from a ‘mag’ as they seem to you now.
1853		G.J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand (1890) 43: The way he cleaned out a southerner [...] was [...] a caution.
1865		Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1994) 800: I recommend you to clean her out without loss of time.
1866		Wild Boys of London I 75/2: Sich an hawful lot of coin I’ve blued, too. [...] Twenty five more will nearly clean me out.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 267: The very servants who are scheming and diplomatising all the time for a fitting opportunity to ‘clean them out.’.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 June 9/4: The explanation given by an excited Celestial in Vicksburg— ‘Me playee poker with Melican[...] Me glettee flo flushee; me bettee fifteen dollar, evly son of glun clum in. Me cleanee out’.
1881		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 29 Oct. 3/3: [headline] How ‘Long Bill’ Learned the Game only to be Cleaned out by the Red-skins.
1882		Bristol Magpie 13 July 3/1: cleaned out‘Have you [...] anything to offer the Court before sentence is passed?’ ‘No, your Honour [...] my lawyer took my last cent!’ .
1890		Sporting Times 3 May 1/3: He utilisied his winnings as groundbait for flats who were fly enough to kid themselves that they could clean him out and leave him granite-rocked at banker, shove-halfpenny, and penny nap.
1894		H. Lawson ‘The Lost Souls’ Hotel’ in Roderick (1972) 155: I’d do all I could to [...] keep them from rushing [...] down to Sydney, to be cleaned out by barmaids.
1899		H.E. Hamblen Yarn of Bucko Mate 111: I stipulated that, in case [...] they cleaned him out again, he should assist me in operating a system I had invented.
1901		(ref. to 1867) ‘Rolf Boldrewood’ In Bad Company 483: I paid my bill at Martin’s [...] and it cleaned me out.
1901		D. Cotsford Society Snapshots 134: If you’re really cleaned out and can’t get home you can claim the viatique.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 6 May 10/2: He had lost a few bob but the rest kept on raising the stakes [...] until the poor waybacker was cleaned right out.
1904		Ade ‘Lonesome Trolley-Riders’ in True Bills 5: Then Mrs. Gillespie mistook a Four-spot for a Seven and was cleaned by the Jinkins Combination.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 59: He puts up a beef about the elbows shakin’ him down ag’in an’ cleanin’ him out.
1913		E. O’Neill A Wife for Life in Ten ‘Lost’ Plays (1995) 4: Now me and money never could get on noway. They cleaned me out in Lawson this time and I reckon they’ll clean me again the next time.
1923		‘Sapper’ Jim Maitland (1953) 47: Cleaned me out, Leyton [...] Ten thousand francs, my boy.
1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 64: One night he killed a man in his cabaret, and that finished him. The lawyers got him off. But they cleaned him out dry.
1929		W. Winchell On Broadway 5 Nov. [synd. col.] When the market tottered it served to ‘clean’ Tex Guinan’s brother Tommy.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Too Much Pep’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 635: It is for the best interests of the community to have Ignaz put in his place before he cleans everybody out.
1940		Wodehouse Eggs, Beans & Crumpets ((1951)) 11: [H]e had a system which couldn’t fail to clean out the Casino.
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 502: He cleaned me out.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 251: Previously, to attract good customers, they had to make special rules, with the always possible danger that a lucky run of the dice might clean out the house.
1961		R.S. Close With Hooves of Brass 143: A couple of games for bob stakes would either see her cleaned out or get her out of the blue.
1962		H.S. Thompson letter 6 June in Proud Highway (1997) 340: I can meet tomorrow’s bill, 75 pesos, but the next [...] will come close to cleaning me out.
1975		D. Goines Inner City Hoodlum 147: We’re gonna clean the bastard out as soon as possible.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 158: I was playing for moolah. And I got cleaned out.
1984		‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 105: You had the two cheques, one for five hundred and the other for three. You pretty well cleaned him out, didn’t you?
2006		D. Mitchell Black Swan Green 31 3: Anglesey couldn’t resist it! Floorin’ Red Rex and cleanin’ him out.

4. (US) to defeat heavily, to trounce, to ‘make short work of’.

1858		Kansas Hist. Collection XIV 99: I allow that I could clean you out quicker than greased lightning would pass a funeral [DA].
1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 99: Tenney was an ‘old dodger,’ and was too sharp to be ‘cleaned out’ by the Eastern police.
1887		F. Francis Jr Saddle and Mocassin 136: If he could kill Indians shooting off his mouth at them, he’d soon clean out all there is.
1900		W.F. Drannan Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains (1903) 361: We ought to clean them out without losing ten men.
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 51: Many a joint I cleaned out with my cannon.
1910		H. Hapgood Types From City Streets 321: I’d like ter see her come into Barney’s and try to clean this place out!
1916		C.J. Dennis ‘The Battle of the Wazzir’ in Moods of Ginger Mick [unpub. unrevised proof version] An’ they fixed a night to clean the Wazzir out.
1952		L. Hughes Laughing to Keep from Crying 115: Let’s clean out the spicks.
1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 239: There was talk of [...] ‘goin’ up there to clean the place out’.

5. (US) of a place, to smash up.

1874		Cultivator and Country Gentleman (US) 10 Dec. 799/2: A party of rowdies ‘clean out’ a drinking-saloon.
1879		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 15 Nov. 12: [pic. caption] A delegation of collegians attempted to ‘clean out the town’ in retaliation for the arrest of some of their fellows.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 Jan. 4: [pic. caption] A party of railroaders [...] decide to ‘clean out’ a billiard saloon — They beat the barkeeper and demolish things generally.
1929		(con. 1914) Hall & Niles One Man’s War 77: Mimi’s restaurant had been ‘cleaned out’ by the Boche. After they had eaten all they could hold, they ‘did in’ the fixtures.
1930		E.H. Lavine Third Degree (1931) 172: Getting some husky men with him, he picked up an assortment of axes, bars and sledge-hammers. With much gusto, he cleaned out about a dozen disorderly houses.

6. (gambling) to take all of an opponent’s money.

1863		Leeds Times 12 Dec. 6/3: A famous Italian gamester [...] caused a great number of false dice to be made [...] He obtained an introduction to court and gambled to so good purpose [...] that he ‘cleaned out’ a great part of the nobility’s pockets.
1896		J.F. Lillard Poker Stories 51: The officers at Natchez cleaned all the gamblers out.
1901		S.E. White Westerners 94: Bunco men can clean him out in a gambling joint, but who ever heard of their selling him a gold brick? [DA].
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 13: [She] was cleaned out by old Mrs. Postlethwaite, who ordinarily could not tell Clubs from Spades.
1933		W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 67: I seen him clean out Pat Desmond’s faro game in two hours; made him turn the box over.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 17: ‘You’ve c-c-cleaned me right out, Blue.’ Homer turned out his empty pockets.
1999		Observer Screen 20 June 3: One of the dockers asked me if I could play solo whist [...] We sat down. I drank their vodka and cleaned them out.

7. (US Und.) of police, to raid.

1929		Illinois Association for Criminal Justice et al. Illinois Crime Survey 861: [I]n October, 1925, raiders from headquarters cleaned out the Twenty-second Street district.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 144: I want you to clean out that McClosky mob and clean ’em out like crabs.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 143: Lou’s Hotel was cleaned out in a vice raid early Sunday morning.