neaten
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Few things neaten a naturalistic garden like fresh edging around beds.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 8, 2023
There is only so much we can really put away even though I’ve started making the effort to remove anything truly personal when I neaten up ahead of company.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 30, 2017
I would neaten myself up and tell them I could work whatever hours they wanted.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 27, 2013
They fundamentally try to neaten things up and make it look more rational than it is.
From Salon ● Oct. 6, 2012
He gathered the papers he had been working on and tamped the bottom of the pile on his desk to neaten it, and then laid the stack down on the right side of the desk.
From "Lyddie" by Katherine Paterson
"Wait—" She adjusts my collar, neatens up my tie.
From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon
We can’t do it without you,’” said Frank Morales, a gravedigger who had just power-washed the monument and neatened the collection of memorabilia that fans leave behind.
From New York Times ● Oct. 5, 2018
But now, said Mr. Rohr, sitting amid the neatened destruction, “It’s time to resume a normal routine.”
From New York Times ● Jul. 4, 2011
She neatened the border of her sari where it rose diagonally across her chest.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
She bent forward and neatened a stack of papers on the desk.
From "The Rock and the River" by Kekla Magoon
Getting through it can take powerful magic, huge acts of transformation and small acts of neatening.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 19, 2020
“It feels like a small act of neatening that I really appreciate,” says Daniel Lavery, the author of Slate’s Dear Prudence advice column.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 19, 2020
A thematic approach can be a tricky, Procrustean way to go; you’re basically imposing an artificially neatening template on an unruly career.
From New York Times ● Oct. 16, 2014
But at the beginning the Callaway Connection manifested itself mainly in a comprehensive neatening up of what they could do already.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 14, 2013
So I folded that piece of paper really small, and, pretending I was neatening up my braid, I wound it into my hair.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
