T-learning # Idiom
Speak Like a Native

clean as a whistle

Choose the correct definition a, b or c.

a) dishonest

Sorry, wrong answer. Please try again.

b) very honest

Well done ! That’s the right answer.

clean as a whistle’ means extremely clean. The expression is also used to mean legal, honest and sincere.

French translation

propre comme un sou neuf, blanc comme neige

How NOT to translate : *propre comme un sifflet

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Examples in context

‘Time to blow the whistle on Joe Biden

Hardly had the possibility surfaced that the GOP-controlled Senate could subpoena him as an impeachment witness, than Joe Biden told the Senate to go whistle.
Sounding like Humphrey Bogart or Edward G. Robinson in one of those old black and white gangster films Hollywood used to make, the former vice president said he was “clean as a whistle” over Ukrainian corruption.
You can just picture Bogart snarling at the cops handcuffing him, “Listen, coppers, you guys got nothing on me. I’m clean as a whistle.”
“Yeah,” Robinson would chime in, “Yeah, you coppers got the wrong guy. He’s clean as whistle”.’
Boston Herald, 11 Jan. 2020

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Everyday usage

Their facility was as clean as a whistle and their technicians were very well trained.

He’s either clean as a whistle… or else he’s got something to hide.

c) biased

Sorry, wrong answer. Please try again.


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