diff --git a/Makefile.inc1 b/Makefile.inc1
index b5d7035c7295..4c4fdf601ce0 100644
--- a/Makefile.inc1
+++ b/Makefile.inc1
@@ -441,8 +441,12 @@ SUBDIR+=etc
 .endif	# !empty(SUBDIR_OVERRIDE)
 
 .if defined(NOCLEAN)
-.warning NOCLEAN option is deprecated. Use NO_CLEAN instead.
-NO_CLEAN=	${NOCLEAN}
+.warning The src.conf WITHOUT_CLEAN option can now be used instead of NOCLEAN.
+MK_CLEAN:=	no
+.endif
+.if defined(NO_CLEAN)
+.info The src.conf WITHOUT_CLEAN option can now be used instead of NO_CLEAN.
+MK_CLEAN:=	no
 .endif
 .if defined(NO_CLEANDIR)
 CLEANDIR=	clean cleandepend
@@ -451,7 +455,7 @@ CLEANDIR=	cleandir
 .endif
 
 .if defined(WORLDFAST)
-NO_CLEAN=	t
+MK_CLEAN:=	no
 NO_OBJWALK=	t
 .endif
 
@@ -460,7 +464,7 @@ NO_OBJWALK=	t
 # The .meta files will also track the build command and rebuild should
 # it change.
 .if empty(.MAKE.MODE:Mnofilemon)
-NO_CLEAN=	t
+MK_CLEAN:=	no
 .endif
 .endif
 .if defined(NO_OBJWALK) || ${MK_AUTO_OBJ} == "yes"
@@ -837,7 +841,7 @@ _LIBCOMPAT= SOFT
 # timestamps (see NO_META_IGNORE_HOST in sys.mk).  There are known times
 # when the ABI breaks though that we want to force rebuilding WORLDTMP
 # to get updated host tools.
-.if ${MK_META_MODE} == "yes" && defined(NO_CLEAN) && \
+.if ${MK_META_MODE} == "yes" && ${MK_CLEAN} == "no" && \
     !defined(NO_META_IGNORE_HOST) && !defined(NO_META_IGNORE_HOST_HEADERS) && \
     !defined(_MKSHOWCONFIG)
 # r318736 - ino64 major ABI breakage
@@ -869,7 +873,7 @@ NO_META_IGNORE_HOST_HEADERS=	1
 .export NO_META_IGNORE_HOST_HEADERS
 .endif	# defined(_meta_mode_need_rebuild)
 .endif	# defined(OBJDIR_HOST_OSRELDATE)
-.endif	# ${MK_META_MODE} == "yes" && defined(NO_CLEAN) ...
+.endif	# ${MK_META_MODE} == "yes" && ${MK_CLEAN} == "no" ...
 # This is only used for META_MODE+filemon to track what the oldest
 # __FreeBSD_version is in WORLDTMP.  This purposely does NOT have
 # a make dependency on /usr/include/osreldate.h as the file should
@@ -1013,7 +1017,7 @@ _worldtmp: .PHONY
 	@echo "--------------------------------------------------------------"
 	@echo ">>> Rebuilding the temporary build tree"
 	@echo "--------------------------------------------------------------"
-.if !defined(NO_CLEAN)
+.if ${MK_CLEAN} == "yes"
 	rm -rf ${WORLDTMP}
 .else
 # Note: for delete-old we need to set $PATH to also include the host $PATH
@@ -1038,7 +1042,7 @@ _worldtmp: .PHONY
 .if ${USING_SYSTEM_LINKER} == "yes"
 	@rm -f ${WORLDTMP}/usr/bin/ld ${WORLDTMP}/usr/bin/ld.lld
 .endif	# ${USING_SYSTEM_LINKER} == "yes"
-.endif	# !defined(NO_CLEAN)
+.endif	# ${MK_CLEAN} == "yes"
 	@mkdir -p ${WORLDTMP}
 	@touch ${WORLDTMP}/${.TARGET}
 # We can't use mtree to create the worldtmp directories since it may not be
@@ -1077,7 +1081,7 @@ _bootstrap-tools:
 	${WORLDTMP_MTREE} -f ${.CURDIR}/${_mtree} -p ${WORLDTMP} > /dev/null
 .endfor
 _cleanobj:
-.if !defined(NO_CLEAN)
+.if ${MK_CLEAN} == "yes"
 	@echo
 	@echo "--------------------------------------------------------------"
 	@echo ">>> stage 2.1: cleaning up the object tree"
@@ -1090,7 +1094,7 @@ _cleanobj:
 .endif
 .else
 	${_+_}cd ${.CURDIR}; ${WMAKE} _NO_INCLUDE_COMPILERMK=t _cleanobj_fast_depend_hack
-.endif	# !defined(NO_CLEAN)
+.endif	# ${MK_CLEAN} == "yes"
 _obj:
 	@echo
 	@echo "--------------------------------------------------------------"
@@ -1672,7 +1676,7 @@ buildkernel: .MAKE .PHONY
 			-I '${KERNCONFDIR}' -I '${KRNLCONFDIR}' \
 			'${KERNCONFDIR}/${_kernel}'
 .endif
-.if !defined(NO_CLEAN) && !defined(NO_KERNELCLEAN)
+.if ${MK_CLEAN} == "yes" && !defined(NO_KERNELCLEAN)
 	@echo
 	@echo "--------------------------------------------------------------"
 	@echo ">>> stage 2.1: cleaning up the object tree"
@@ -2478,7 +2482,7 @@ _jevents=lib/libpmc/pmu-events
 
 # kernel-toolchain skips _cleanobj, so handle cleaning up previous
 # build-tools directories if needed.
-.if !defined(NO_CLEAN) && make(kernel-toolchain)
+.if ${MK_CLEAN} == "yes" && make(kernel-toolchain)
 _bt_clean=	${CLEANDIR}
 .endif
 
diff --git a/Makefile.libcompat b/Makefile.libcompat
index ad67fd114b34..08630e9909b2 100644
--- a/Makefile.libcompat
+++ b/Makefile.libcompat
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ build${libcompat}: .PHONY
 	@echo "--------------------------------------------------------------"
 	@echo ">>> stage 4.3: building lib${libcompat} shim libraries"
 	@echo "--------------------------------------------------------------"
-.if !defined(NO_CLEAN)
+.if ${MK_CLEAN} == "yes"
 	rm -rf ${LIBCOMPATTMP}
 .else
 	${_+_}@if [ -e "${LIBCOMPATTMP}" ]; then \
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ build${libcompat}: .PHONY
 		    DESTDIR=${LIBCOMPATTMP} \
 		    delete-old delete-old-libs >/dev/null; \
 	fi
-.endif	# !defined(NO_CLEAN)
+.endif	# MK_CLEAN == "yes"
 
 	mkdir -p ${LIBCOMPATTMP}/usr/include
 	${WORLDTMP_MTREE} -f ${.CURDIR}/etc/mtree/BSD.usr.dist \
diff --git a/share/mk/src.opts.mk b/share/mk/src.opts.mk
index 619bfc3c9c58..2f8fb61d2091 100644
--- a/share/mk/src.opts.mk
+++ b/share/mk/src.opts.mk
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ __DEFAULT_YES_OPTIONS = \
     CLANG \
     CLANG_BOOTSTRAP \
     CLANG_IS_CC \
+    CLEAN \
     CPP \
     CROSS_COMPILER \
     CRYPT \
diff --git a/tools/build/options/WITHOUT_CLEAN b/tools/build/options/WITHOUT_CLEAN
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..b55caa4b4bfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/build/options/WITHOUT_CLEAN
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+.\" $FreeBSD$
+Do not clean before building world and/or kernel.