squeaky-clean
adjective (informal)

- someone who is squeaky-clean is completely good and honest and never does anything bad

- if you say that someone is squeaky clean, you mean that they live a very moral life and have never done anything wrong

The Cambridge Dictionary / Collins Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

“Squeaky” (late 14th century), is derived from squeken "utter a short, sharp, high-pitched cry”, probably of imitative origin. Similar to Middle Swedish skväka "to squeak, croak”.

“Clean" has its origins in Old English (5th-11th century) from the Proto-Germanic root klainja “clear, pure”.

“Squeaky clean” in the figurative sense of “untainted by scandal” first appeared in the 1950s and '60s in advertisements for dishwashers.

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GIFTED GUITARIST

How pretending to have been bad, can be good!

In 1985, the famous country guitarist Chet Atkins was a guest on Garrison Keillor's radio show 'A Prairie Home Companion'. The show was being broadcast live from Symphony Hall in Atlanta. Atkins had a reputation for living a very clean, wholesome lifestyle. During the show, Atkins admitted to Keillor, "I want you to know, Garrison, that I'm off drugs now". Since Keillor knew Atkins was not the type to use drugs, he was very surprised to hear this.

Later, Atkins made a confession: "Actually, I've never used drugs even once in my life. But I've noticed that when performers announce they just stopped using drugs, it often helps their careers. So, to encourage drug users to stop, I thought I'd pretend I got off drugs too!"

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SYNONYMS

above reproach, aboveboard, as good as gold, as honest as the day is long, authentic, clean as a whistle, clean-living, decent, dependable, diamond in the rough, ethical, exemplary, guiltless, has a moral compass, heart of gold, honorable, honest, honest-to-goodness, incorruptible, irreproachable, legit, legitimate, like a boy/girl scout, moral, noble, not a bad bone in their body, principled, proper, pure as the driven snow, salt of the earth, SQUEAKY CLEAN, stainless, steadfast, straight as an arrow, straight shooter (-shooting), straightforward, trustworthy, trustable, trustful, true, true north, unassailable, unimpeachable, upstanding, virtuous, walks the straight and narrow, white as snow, worthy

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation, say something like:

“I wonder how many political and business leaders claiming to be on the ‘moral high ground’ are really SQUEAKY CLEAN?”

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