Plain vs Clean - What's the difference?
plain | clean |
* Bible, (w) xl. 4
Simple.
# Ordinary; lacking adornment or ornamentation; unembellished.
#* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= # Of just one colour; lacking a pattern.
# Simple in habits or qualities; unsophisticated, not exceptional, ordinary.
#* (Henry Hammond) (1605-1660)
#* (Abraham Lincoln) (1809-1865)
# (label) Having only few ingredients, or no additional ingredients or seasonings; not elaborate, without toppings or extras.
# (label) Containing no extended or nonprinting characters (especially in plain text).
Obvious.
# Evident to one's senses or reason; manifest, clear, unmistakable.
#* 1843 , (Thomas Carlyle), '', book 2, ch. XV, ''Practical — Devotional
# Downright; total, unmistakable (as intensifier).
Open.
# Honest and without deception; candid, open; blunt.
#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
# Clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.
#* Felton
Not unusually beautiful; unattractive.
(colloquial) Simply
(rare, poetic) A lamentation.
* 1815 , Sir ,
To lament, bewail.
* Bishop Joseph Hall
* ,
An expanse of land with relatively low relief.
* Milton
* 1961 , J. A. Philip. Mimesis in the ''Sophistês'' of Plato . In: Proceedings and Transactions of the American Philological Association 92. p. 467.
A battlefield.
* Shakespeare
(obsolete) A .
(obsolete) To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.
* Wither
(obsolete) To make plain or manifest; to explain.
* Shakespeare
Free of dirt or impurities or protruberances.
#Not dirty.
#:
#*
#*:Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully furnished, and was very clean . ¶ There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.
#In an unmarked condition.
#:
#(lb) Allowing an uninterrupted flow over surfaces, without protrusions such as racks or landing gear.
#Empty.
#:
#(lb) Having relatively few impurities.
#:
Free of immorality or criminality.
#Pure, especially morally or religiously.
#:
#*(Bible), (Psalms) li.10:
#*:Create in me a clean heart, O God.
#* (1809-1892)
#*:That I am whole, and clean , and meet for Heaven.
#Not having used drugs or alcohol.
#:
# Without restrictions or penalties, or someone having such a record.
#:
#(lb) Not in possession of weapons or contraband such as drugs.
#:
Smooth, exact, and performed well.
:
(lb) Cool or neat.
:
(lb) Being free of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
:
Which doesn’t .
:
Free from that which is useless or injurious; without defects.
:
Free from restraint or neglect; complete; entire.
*(Bible), (w) xxiii.22:
*:When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of corners of thy field.
Well-proportioned; shapely.
:
Ascended without falling.
Removal of dirt.
(weightlifting) The first part of the event clean and jerk in which the weight is brought from the ground to the shoulders.
To remove dirt from a place or object.
To tidy up, make a place neat.
(climbing) To remove equipment from a climbing route after it was previously lead climbed.
To make things clean in general.
(curling) To brush the ice lightly in front of a moving rock to remove any debris and ensure a correct line; less vigorous than a sweep.
Fully and completely.
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
, title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=1
As adjectives the difference between plain and clean
is that plain is while clean is free of dirt or impurities or protruberances .As adverbs the difference between plain and clean
is that plain is (colloquial) simply while clean is fully and completely.As nouns the difference between plain and clean
is that plain is (rare|poetic) a lamentation or plain can be an expanse of land with relatively low relief while clean is removal of dirt.As verbs the difference between plain and clean
is that plain is to lament, bewail or plain can be (obsolete|transitive) to plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface while clean is to remove dirt from a place or object.plain
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) pleyn, playn, (etyl) plain, plein, from (etyl) .Adjective
(er)- The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain .
The Evolution of Eyeglasses, passage=The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.}}
- plain yet pious Christians
- the plain people
- In fact, by excommunication or persuasion, by impetuosity of driving or adroitness in leading, , it is now becoming plain everywhere, is a man that generally remains master at last.
- an honest mind, and plain
- Our troops beat an army in plain fight.
Synonyms
* no-frills * normal * ordinary * simple * unadorned * unseasoned * See alsoAntonyms
* bells and whistles * decorative * exotic * fancy * ornateDerived terms
* plain and simple * plain as a pikestaff * plain as the nose on one's face * plain chocolate * plain clothes * plain-dealing * plain film * plain flour * plain-hearted * plain Jane * plain-laid * plain line * plain paper * plain sailing * plain song/plainsong * plain-spoken * plain text * plain-vanilla * plain weave * plain-winged * plainly * plainnessAdverb
(-)- It was just plain stupid.
- I plain forgot.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) plainer, pleiner, variant of (etyl) and (etyl) pleindre, plaindre, from (etyl) plangere, present active infinitive of .Alternative forms
* pleinNoun
(en noun)The Lady of the Isles, Canto IV, part IX
- The warrior-threat, the infant's plain ,
- The mother's screams, were heard in vain;
Verb
(en verb)- to plain a loss
- Thy mother could thee for thy cradle set / Her husband's rusty iron corselet; / Whose jargling sound might rock her babe to rest, / That never plain' d of his uneasy nest.
More Poems, XXV, lines 5-9
- Then came I crying, and to-day,
- With heavier cause to plain ,
- Depart I into death away,
- Not to be born again.
Etymology 3
From (etyl) plain, from (etyl) .Noun
(wikipedia plain) (en noun)- Him the Ammonite / Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain .
- For Plato the life of the philosopher is a life of struggle towards the goal of knowledge, towards “searching the heavens and measuring the plains , in all places seeking the nature of everything as a whole”
- (Arbuthnot)
- Lead forth my soldiers to the plain .
Synonyms
* flatlands * high plain * plateau * prairie * steppeAntonyms
* cliff * gorge * mountain * valeDerived terms
* abyssal plain * alluvial plain * flood plain/floodplain * gibber plain * Great Plains * peneplain * Plains * plain wanderer * salt plain * the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plainSee also
* grassland * meadowVerb
(en verb)- We would rake Europe rather, plain the East.
- What's dumb in show, I'll plain in speech.
Statistics
*Anagrams
* English degree adverbs ----clean
English
(wikipedia clean)Adjective
(er)Synonyms
* (not dirty) * (empty)Antonyms
* dirty * uncleanDerived terms
* clean as a hound's tooth * * clean sheet * clean sweep * cleanliness * cleanly * come clean * lick clean * uncleanNoun
(en noun)- This place needs a clean .
Verb
(en verb)- Can you clean the windows today?
- Clean your room right now!
- She just likes to clean . That’s why I married her.
Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* clean someone’s clock * clean out * clean up * cleaner * housecleanAdverb
(er)citation, passage=The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when modish taste was just due to go clean out of fashion for the best part of the next hundred years.}}
