CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH Definition & Meaning

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clean bill of health

noun

a certificate of health attesting the lack of a contagious disease, as on a ship.
an assurance, as by a doctor, that one is in good health.
Also clean bill. an assurance, especially an official verdict by a committee, that a group or an individual has proved, under investigation, to be morally sound, fit for office, etc.

clean bill of health

To “get a clean bill of health” is to be told by some authoritative source, generally a doctor, that one is perfectly healthy. The phrase is sometimes used figuratively to indicate that a person or organization has been found free of any sort of irregularity: “After looking into her financial background, the Senate gave the nominee a clean bill of health.”

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��t¶�� History and Origins

Origin of clean bill of health¹

First recorded in 1850–55

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Idioms and Phrases

A report confirming the absence of fault or guilt in a person or thing, as in Jeff checked every component and gave the computer a clean bill of health , or He had a foolproof alibi so the police had to give him a clean bill of health . This term comes from a 17th-century practice of requiring ships to produce a medical document ( bill ) attesting to the absence of infectious disease on board before landing.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

But whether USC will have a clean bill of health by then remains to be seen.

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She steadily improved and within a year got a clean bill of health.

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"We haven't given Israel a clean bill of health - Israel's performance on aid has not been good enough."

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But she said doctors can’t provide patients with “an everything looks good’ or a clean bill of health off of an ultrasound at 10 weeks.”

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Wagner said these early ultrasounds can’t provide the assurance patients are looking for because “you can’t give somebody an ‘everything looks good’ or a clean bill of health off of an ultrasound at 10 weeks.”

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Definitions and idiom definitions from ��t¶�� Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

clean as a whistle clean breast

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