Recently we've been hearing the phrase "clean his clock" somewhat frequently in the media. Here's what we discovered about the phrase.
The phrase is used often by sportscasters to mean thoroughly beating someone in a game.
"To clean" was used as far back as 1819 to mean "drub or vanquish" someone. Clock evidently has been slang for a person's face since the mid nineteenth century.
Railroaders used "clean the clock" when a "driver brought his train to a sudden halt by applying the air brakes." This caused the needle on the air pressure gauge to swing, thus "cleaning the clock." A number of sites mention this and then say they don't know how that's related to the current use of the phrase.
The sources differ on when the exact phrase was first used. One says 1908 and another references 1959.
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