Meaning
A fresh start: the chance to begin again with past faults, debts or mistakes no longer counting against you. Merriam-Webster defines it as a person's record, as from a school or a job, that shows no evidence of any problems - a clean record. Used both of people given a second chance and of situations restarted from scratch. Usually in start with a clean slate or give someone a clean slate. The nautical log-slate origin story circulates widely; the dated record supports general record-keeping slates, so the ship's-log tale is presented as unverified. Regional use: All English varieties.
Origin
The image is of writing chalked on a slate and wiped away so no old entries remain. The references differ on the first record and on whose slate: Etymonline dates clean slate to 1856 and says the image is of tavern customers' accounts chalked up on a slate, while the OED's search record dates the figurative sense to 1868, filed under slate and defined as a record of any kind - both verified directly. Slates had been writing surfaces for centuries, with the writing-tablet sense from the late fourteenth century. The widely repeated nautical story - that a ship's courses were chalked on the log slate and wiped clean at the end of each watch - appears at Wiktionary, yet that entry cites no early example, and no dated major reference traces the idiom specifically to the ship's log. The Phrase Finder has no origin essay for it. The record-keeping metaphor is solid; the schoolroom and tavern versions have dictionary support; the nautical version is the folkloric one.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- give someone a clean slate
- start with a clean slate
- wipe the slate clean
Usage Examples
- After paying off the fine, he was allowed to start the season with a clean slate.
- The new manager gave everyone a clean slate, judging them only on work from that day forward.
- Bankruptcy wrecked her credit, but the discharge at least offered a partial clean slate.