clean plate
Nothing left behind
A clean plate is one that's been emptied of food, either by eating everything on it or by washing.
The phrase appears most often in the context of finishing a meal: Clean your plate before you get dessert.
The clean plate club is the imaginary group children join by eating all their food—a bit of mealtime folklore parents invoke to encourage kids to finish.
- emptyHolding nothing inside
- spotlessCompletely free of marks
- finishedBrought to an end
- mealOccasion for nourishment
- dinnerPrimary evening meal
comfort food · dinner table · polished · scraped · licked · appetite · hungry · seconds · second helpings · satisfied · full · manners · table manners · etiquette · waste · picky eater · sparkling · dish
- eating phrasesdig in, chow down, bon appetit, eat up, gobble up
- gluttonyglutton, gluttonous, gorge, gorger, gorging
- eating habitsvegetarian, vegan, omnivore, carnivore, pescatarian
- finishfinish, complete, conclude, end, finalize
- table mannerstable manners, napkin folding, chewing quietly, elbows off table, proper posture
clean, plate, cleans, cleaned, cleaning, cleaner, cleanest, cleanly, cleanliness