Come clean?

Reader question:

Please explain “come clean” in this sentence: Enough lies, it’s time to come clean.

My comments:

This is a call for someone who’s been lying about something to stop doing that. This is a call for them to, instead, make a confession, tell the truth and clear their conscience in the process.

Make a clean breast of this, in other words, and turn a new leaf.

Now, what’s “come clean”?

Literally, you wash dirty clothes thoroughly so that they’ll COME out of the water CLEAN.

That’s too simple an explanation perhaps, but we are dealing with two simple words after all. The Phrase Finder (Phrases.org.uk) explains the phrase thus: “‘Come’ is clearly just a shortening of ‘become’; ‘clean’ means ‘not sullied by untruth’.

Also simple, right?

And the Phrase Finder further explains the phrase’s origin – in America:

‘Come clean’ originated in the USA in either the late 19th or early 20th century. The earliest example that I have found of it in print is from the Moberly Evening Democrat, August 1904:

“Now, then Chillicothe papers – Constitution, Democrat, Tribune – come clean. Tell the truth.”

The unnamed journalist who wrote that must have liked the phrase, as it appears several times in the same paper from around that time and before I can find it elsewhere. It’s possible that the phrase was coined in Moberly, but that’s just conjecture.

Anyways, to “come clean” about something is to tell the truth about it in order to clear one’s conscience. In other words, you won’t continue to be burdened by it, especially if it’s something very bad and painful.

If it’s not something bad or painful, then, to “come clean” about it is to lust tell what you know in order to clarify a situation and remove any confusion that may exist.

It always helps to read the phrase in context, of course. So, here’s a few real media examples:

1. It’s time to come clean!

Dr. Jason Singh, a primary care physician based in Virginia, is very concerned that you are not washing your water bottles often enough to prevent bacterial growth.

“I know there are folks out there – I’m looking at you – that will go weeks without washing your crusty water bottle, or maybe just a quick rinse before you fill it up,” Singh said on TikTok last week.

“Every time you take a sip, you’re not just drinking water,” Singh added. “You’re creating a microscopic exchange between your oral microbiome, which is full of strep [bacteria] and [other] gram-positive organisms, and you’re exchanging it with the bottle’s ecosystem.”

Research finds that most microorganisms form a biofilm on a surface like a water bottle within 48 hours. The bacteria forge a protective layer and multiply, creating a complex community where they can communicate and cooperate to spread infection.

Biofilms can be beneficial, harmful or neutral depending on the type of bacteria. Researchers blame 65% to 80% of human infections on biofilms, particularly those that develop on medical devices like catheters, pacemakers and heart valves.

A 2023 study suggested that reusable water bottles can harbor 40,000 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat.

“That’s why it’s recommended to wash your water bottle with soap every two days,” Singh said. “Use soap, hot water [and] a bottle brush to mechanically disrupt the biofilms. Really get up in your bedazzled Stanley and kill off that biofilm, and then allow it to completely dry.”

Other experts recommend washing the bottle every day if you drink from it daily and definitely at least once a week.

University of Alabama at Birmingham biologists advise using hot water and dish soap to scrub all interior and exterior surfaces where bacteria could hide and rinsing the bottle with clean water.

Kill residual bacteria or mold by sanitizing with a bleach solution or a commercial sanitizer meant for food contact surfaces and let the bottle completely dry before using it again.

- This is how often you should really be washing your water bottle – doc says it’s not actually every day, NYPost.com, December 30, 2024.

2. Speaker Mike Johnson called on Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, to come clean and told Americans that he “hoped” she could be trusted as he faces the growing uproar around the White House’s handling of the investigation.

Johnson appeared Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, where moderator Kristen Welker asked him point-blank if the convicted sex-trafficker girlfriend of Epstein could be trusted to accurately testify about the crimes she and Epstein committed. Epstein was awaiting prosecution for sex trafficking underage girls after a previous conviction on similar charges when he died in federal custody.

Maxwell has been thrust back into the spotlight as the MAGA base has grown frustrated with President Donald Trump and his administration’s shutting down of the so-called Epstein files release. Last week, a top Department of Justice official met with Maxwell about the case.

“Well, I mean, look; it’s a good question. I hope so,” Johnson told Welker in response. “I hope that she would want to come clean.”

“I hope she’s telling the truth. She is convicted, she’s serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking. Her character is in some question....but if she wants to come clean now, that would be a great service to the country. We want to know every bit of information that she has.”

The House Oversight Committee voted this week to issue a subpoena for Maxwell after the Justice Department announced its own plans to speak with her. Agency officials did so for nine hours between Thursday and Friday, after making a statement seeming to confirm that her testimony hadn’t been aggressively sought before.

Some have called Maxwell to testify and suggested she should be given a pardon for sharing what she knows about the Epstein case. She was convicted of sexual abuse against minors and sex trafficking for helping Epstein carry out crimes.

- Mike Johnson says Ghislaine Maxwell coming clean on Epstein case would be ‘a great service to the country’, Independent.co.uk, July 27, 2025.

3. In late August, a group of people armed with flags and ladders took to Brighton city centre. Flags of St George and the Union Jack went up on lampposts and were attached to shop signs. Contractors removing them in line with the Highway Act – under which it is an offence to tie things to ‘highway fixtures’ – were subjected to verbal abuse.

Yesterday, addressing hundreds of trade unionists inside the Brighton Centre conference venue, the General Secretary of the TUC, Paul Nowak had a message for flag protesters – who, in turn, have been linked to anti-migrant hotel demonstrations.

“I understand people take pride in the Union Jack, in the St George’s Cross, the Saltire and the Red Dragon,” he said. “But patriotism is about much more than flags.

“As that 1945 generation knew, real patriotism is about building decent homes, and ensuring no-one is left behind.

“It’s about creating good jobs, so people aren’t left in poverty and feel pride in their labour. And real patriotism is never about daubing graffiti on people’s homes or shops or intimidating our friends and neighbours.

“That’s not patriotism and it should shame anyone who loves this country.”

Addressing the 80th Congress since the end of World War II, Nowak, the grandson of migrants from Ireland, Poland and China, said: “Congress, the far right, and populist right don’t care about working-class people, they don’t speak for working-class people, and they never will.

“That’s our job.”

As the curtain swung shut on Reform UK’s own conference in Birmingham, the 157th Trade Union Congress was beginning in Brighton, bringing together trade unionists from across the UK in the September sunshine.

…

Yesterday, Nowak made a direct challenge to Reform’s leaders: “Ignore your wealthy backers and vote for the Employment Rights Bill,” he said. “Nigel Farage, it’s time to come clean about whose side you are really on.”

- Forget the flags – it’s time for Farage to come clean about whose side he’s really on, Mirror.co.uk, September 8, 2025.

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）