🧼 Clean as a Hound’s Tooth
“Clean as a hound’s tooth” – Spotlessly clean. This proverbial simile, current from about 1900, is as puzzling as one of its 15th-century antecedents, “clean as a byrdes ars.” The teeth of hounds are no cleaner than those of other carnivores, but therein may lie the source of the saying. “Clean” here may first have meant “sharp.” By the 1950s, however, when it was being applied to President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration, it meant clean in a more conventional figurative sense—free of corruption.
Similar Terms and Expressions:
- As neat as a pin: Extremely neat and tidy.
- Spick and span: Completely clean and spotless.
- Squeaky clean: Completely clean or morally upright.
- Clean as a whistle: Absolutely clean or free from suspicion.
- As white as snow: Pure, spotless, clean.
Related Proverbs:
- Cleanliness is next to godliness: Being clean is a sign of spiritual purity or goodness.
- A clean conscience makes a soft pillow: You sleep well if your conscience is clear.
- Where there is muck, there is brass: Profits can come from dirty or business activities.
Quotes and Wit:
“Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing.” — Phyllis Diller
“My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.” — Erma Bombeck
Literature & Media:
- Books: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (entails themes of personal and environmental cleanliness and rebirth)
- Movies: Clean (2004), directed by Olivier Assayas, explores cleanliness in metaphorical terms relating to life’s messiness and redemption
- Songs: Mr. Clean by Yung Gravy; each “clean” in a playful, metaphorical sense
- Poetry: To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell (plays on themes of purity and “clean” living while subtly mocking these ideals)
Inspirational Quote to Leave You with a Smile:
“Life is messy; we all are a little dust in the wind. But, remember, even the smallest bit of shine catches the eye.”
— Penelope Quillscribe
