clear

Question

Snow plows cleared the roads of snow.If I changed the sentence above into:Snow plows cleaned the roads of snow.,would it still make sense?

Nona the brit · Accepted Answer

I would understand what you meant but it doesn't sound natural. When you clean a road it sounds as though you are washing it. Clearing a road means removing something from it.

Taka · Answer

OK. But that doesn't mean that 'clean X of Y' itself is grammatically wrong; it's just, it doesn't really 'fit' here, right, nona?

CalifJim · Answer

... would it still make sense?

Yes, but it is unidiomatic.

I searched through Google and found some instances of cleaned ... of, but even so, I find it unidiomatic when it refers to the removal of snow from roads. Here are a few examples of what I found, modified in some cases for brevity. I find the last example almost amusing for its creative use of cleaned ... of.

All joints shall be cleaned thoroughly of accretion of concrete or other foreign material.
The probe tip is cleaned thoroughly of possible contamination.
The carbon nanotube had to be cleaned carefully of molecules adsorbed on the tube and impurities in the tube structure.
The aluminum wire is cleaned of all residual lubricants to ensure smooth deposition in the metallizing process.
Confined spaces should be cleaned of hazardous materials.
My son got onto the roof and cleaned our gutters of debris.
With a campaign against illegal fishing, the mayor has cleaned the port town of illegal fishing operators.
___________

Other verbs with a similar pattern, which I ran into during my Google search:

stripped of, purged of, emptied of, drained of, denuded of, debrided of, divested of, flushed of, trimmed of

CJ

Taka · Answer

CalifJim
... would it still make sense?
Yes, but it is unidiomatic.

I searched through Google and found some instances of cleaned ... of, but even so, I find it unidiomatic when it refers to the removal of snow from roads.

Unidiomatic when it refers to the removal from road. Does it mean that when it refers to something else, as your examples, it sounds OK?

Nona the brit · Answer

Those examples are ok but that doesn't mean it would ALWAYS be ok in contexts other than roads. You have to look at each context individually.

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