English, baby!

clean-cut

Date: Apr 02 2009

Quote

1. Quote - Listen to the quote and guess what the slang means.

“I don’t think I’d be happy if I only played clean-cut characters. I can’t paint a pretty picture all the time.”

-Actor Nicolas Cage on the roles he likes to play in movies. (bered.com)

Definition

1. Definition - Study the definition.

wholesome; well-dressed, clean and professional-looking

2. Use - Learn how the slang is used.

What do a suicidal alcoholic, a drug-addicted police officer, and an illegal weapons dealer have in common?

They’re all characters that Nicolas Cage has played in movies. And none of them can be called clean-cut.

If someone is clean-cut, they’re neat and tidy in appearance. Usually, describing someone as clean-cut also implies that they’re wholesome and normal. There’s nothing dark or weird or crazy about them. So you can see why, for an actor, it wouldn’t be very interesting to only play clean-cut characters.

Clean-cut is an adjective that’s most often used to describe people. However, you can also sometimes use clean-cut to describe things like music, movies, or TV shows. A clean-cut movie is a wholesome movie with no sex, violence, or bad language. It’s the kind of movie that’s safe for kids to watch, but might be a little boring for adults.

Examples

1. Examples - Hear some example sentences.

“He used to dress like a hippie but now he’s totally clean-cut. “

“The Beach Boys’ music is considered clean-cut, even though many of the lyrics are quite dark.”

“My mom wants me to date someone clean-cut, but I only like bad boys.”

Winners

1. Winners - See who guessed the slang definition correctly.

	it means "wholesome" by VOLTS
	clean-cut means very pleasant, straight,and kind by amany7
	neat and smart by Julli3^.^
	clear and distinct to the senses; easily perceptible or neat and smart in appearence by Karenzzita
	decent, nice by traciwan
	normal, usual by zsófi
	roles of good and kind people by Maira_from_KZ
	very good, very nice by Fleeting Inn
	positive characters by cynthiachunyan
	Neat and smart (in apperiance) - how does he look like. by Aneet
	neat, polite, without any flaws or shortcomings. Not a bad guy :) by Tusik
	It means pleasant, pleasing or nice! by tanya_ua
	neat and trim in appearance,especially for good looking guy by Athan
	innocent & good image by shv_2005
	good or decent people by Tarfah
	good guy in the movie by CatherineVanilla

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Comments

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rikkizhao

China

Hi,Derlie. Nice to meet you in englishbaby forum. I wanna be one of your friends, may I?

rikkizhao

China

I'm Nicalas Cage's movie funs! I have saw nearly all his movies. I love them very much.

Nicalas Cage is very handsome,do you ?

philip301

China

i love theniclas cage, he is amzing actor, one of my favoriate movie is Gone in 60 Seconds. And the music is awesome, and make people excited.

Marcelolic

Brazil

I can to say that I’m a clean-cut guy,out of the moments of the gym hehe :D

Marcelolic

Brazil

I think Nicalas Cage a great actor,I liked some of his movies such as Family Man,Ghost Rider,National Treasure Book of Secrets and others…Whatever he has one various types of characters,he will always have the face of the clean-cut guy hehe