Clear /(klēr)/

Clear

a.
  1. Free from opaqueness; transparent; bright; light; luminous; unclouded.
    The stream is so transparent, pure, and clear.
    Fair as the moon, clear as the sun.
    — Canticles vi. 10.
  2. Free from ambiguity or indistinctness; lucid; perspicuous; plain; evident; manifest; indubitable.
    One truth is clear; whatever is, is right.
  3. Able to perceive clearly; keen; acute; penetrating; discriminating; as, a clear intellect; a clear head.
    Mother of science! now I feel thy power Within me clear, not only to discern Things in their causes, but to trace the ways Of highest agents.
  4. Not clouded with passion; serene; cheerful.
    With a countenance as clear As friendship wears at feasts.
  5. Easily or distinctly heard; audible; canorous.
    Hark! the numbers soft and clear Gently steal upon the ear.
  6. Without mixture; entirely pure; as, clear sand.
  7. Without defect or blemish, such as freckles or knots; as, a clear complexion; clear lumber.
  8. Free from guilt or stain; unblemished.
    Statesman, yet friend to truth! in soul sincere, In action faithful, and in honor clear.
  9. Without diminution; in full; net; as, clear profit.
    I often wished that I had clear, For life, six hundred pounds a-year.
  10. Free from impediment or obstruction; unobstructed; as, a clear view; to keep clear of debt.
    My companion . . . left the way clear for him.
  11. Free from embarrassment; detention, etc.
    The cruel corporal whispered in my ear, Five pounds, if rightly tipped, would set me clear.

Phrases & Compounds
Clear breach
See under Breach, n., 4.
Clear days
days reckoned from one day to another, excluding both the first and last day; as, from Sunday to Sunday there are six clear days.
Clear stuff
boards, planks, etc., free from knots.

Clear

n.
  1. Full extent; distance between extreme limits; especially; the distance between the nearest surfaces of two bodies, or the space between walls; as, a room ten feet square in the clear. (Carp.)

Clear

adv.
  1. In a clear manner; plainly.
    Now clear I understand What oft . . . thoughts have searched in vain.
  2. Without limitation; wholly; quite; entirely; as, to cut a piece clear off.

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.
  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.
  4. To render more quick or acute, as the understanding; to make perspicacious.
    Our common prints would clear up their understandings.
  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.
  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.
    How! wouldst thou clear rebellion?
  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.

Phrases & Compounds
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
to remove incumbrances from the decks, and prepare for an engagement.
To clear the land
to gain such a distance from shore as to have sea room, and be out of danger from the land.
To clear hawse
to disentangle the cables when twisted.
To clear up
to explain; to dispel, as doubts, cares or fears.

Clear

v. i.
  1. To become free from clouds or fog; to become fair; -- of the weather; -- often followed by up, off, or away.
    So foul a sky clears not without a storm.
    Advise him to stay till the weather clears up.
  2. To become free from turbidity; -- of solutions or suspensions of liquids; as, the salt has not completely dissolved until the suspension clears up; when refrigerated, the juice may become cloudy, but when warmed to room temperature, it clears up again.
  3. To disengage one's self from incumbrances, distress, or entanglements; to become free. [Obs.]
    He that clears at once will relapse; for finding himself out of straits, he will revert to his customs; but he that cleareth by degrees induceth a habit of frugality.
  4. To make exchanges of checks and bills, and settle balances, as is done in a clearing house. (Banking)
  5. To obtain a clearance; as, the steamer cleared for Liverpool to-day.

Phrases & Compounds
To clear out
to go or run away; to depart.