Clear \Clear\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cleared; p. pr. & vb. n.
Clearing.]
1. To render bright, transparent, or undimmed; to free from
clouds.
He sweeps the skies and clears the cloudy north.
--Dryden.
2. To free from impurities; to clarify; to cleanse.
3. To free from obscurity or ambiguity; to relive of
perplexity; to make perspicuous.
Many knotty points there are Which all discuss, but
few can clear. --Prior.
4. To render more quick or acute, as the understanding; to
make perspicacious.
Our common prints would clear up their
understandings. --Addison
5. To free from impediment or incumbrance, from defilement,
or from anything injurious, useless, or offensive; as, to
clear land of trees or brushwood, or from stones; to clear
the sight or the voice; to clear one's self from debt; --
often used with of, off, away, or out.
Clear your mind of cant. --Dr. Johnson.
A statue lies hid in a block of marble; and the art
of the statuary only clears away the superfluous
matter. --Addison.
6. To free from the imputation of guilt; to justify,
vindicate, or acquit; -- often used with from before the
thing imputed.
I . . . am sure he will clear me from partiality.
--Dryden.
How! wouldst thou clear rebellion? --Addison.
7. To leap or pass by, or over, without touching or failure;
as, to clear a hedge; to clear a reef.
8. To gain without deduction; to net.
The profit which she cleared on the cargo.
--Macaulay.
To clear a ship at the customhouse, to exhibit the
documents required by law, give bonds, or perform other
acts requisite, and procure a permission to sail, and such
papers as the law requires.
To clear a ship for action, or To clear for action
(Naut.), to remove incumbrances from the decks, and
prepare for an engagement.
To clear the land (Naut.), to gain such a distance from
shore as to have sea room, and be out of danger from the
land.
To clear hawse (Naut.), to disentangle the cables when
twisted.
To clear up, to explain; to dispel, as doubts, cares or
fears.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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