idiom · informal
come clean
/kʌm kliːn/COME·CLEAN
speaking
to admit something that you have been keeping secret or have been avoiding admitting
Examples
“She finally came clean about why she missed the meeting.”
“If you made a mistake, it's better to come clean now.”
“He came clean and apologised for the error.”
Band 8 sentence
“After weeks of suspicion, she came clean and explained the misunderstanding in full.”
Collocations
- come clean about something
- finally come clean
Word family
come clean (phrase) verb phrasecame clean (past) verb phrase
Common mistakes
He come clean yesterday.→He came clean yesterday.
He came clean about that matter to me.→He came clean to me about that matter.
Say it for a higher band
5admit→6confess→7+come clean
Synonyms
admit
confess
Easily confused
confess
“He confessed to taking the money.”
Related words
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In Communication
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