publish:
"Publishing", they kind of mean "Deploying", or "Copying to the deploy directory", depending on what server you are using.
from stackoverflow
deploy
Deploying of wars is automatic by default
clean
Clean: Purges all webapps and redeploys them (don't do this while the Tomcat instance is running)
Clean working dir: Cleans out Tomcat's work dir, e.g. where compiled JSPs go.
http://www.coderanch.com/t/87174/Tomcat/Purpose-work-directory-Tomcat
remove