Clear (?), a. [Compar. Clearer (?); superl. Clearest.] [OE. cler, cleer, OF. cler, F. clair, fr.L. clarus, clear, broght, loud, distinct, renownwd; perh. akin to L. clamare to call, E. claim. Cf. Chanticleer, Clairvoyant, Claret, Clarufy.]
1.
Free from opaqueness; transparent; bright; light; luminous; unclouded.
The stream is so transparent, pure, and clear.
Denham.
Fair as the moon, clear as the sun.
Canticles vi. 10.
2.
Free from ambiquity or indistinctness; lucid; perspicuous; plain; evident; manifest; indubitable.
One truth is clear; whatever is, is right.
Pop.
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.
Milton.
4.
Not clouded with passion; serene; cheerful.
With a countenance as clear
As friendship wears at feasts.
Shak.
5.
Easily or distinctly heard; audible; canorous.
Hark! the numbers soft and clear
Gently steal upon the ear.
Pope.
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.
Pope.
9.
Without diminution; in full; net; as, clear profit.
I often wished that I had clear,
For life, six hundred pounds a-year.
Swift
.
10.
Free from impediment or obstruction; unobstructed; as, a clear view; to keep clear of debt.
My companion . . . left the way clear for him.
Addison.
11.
Free from embarrassment; detention, etc.
The cruel corporal whispered in my ear,
Five pounds, if rightly tipped, would set me clear.
Gay.
Clear breach. See under Breach, n., 4. -- Clear days Law., 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.
Syn. -- Manifest; pure; unmixed; pellucid; transparent; luminous; obvious; visible; plain; evident; apparent; distinct; perspicuous. See Manifest.
© Webster 1913.
Clear (?), n. Carp.
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.
© Webster 1913.
Clear, adv.
1.
In a clear manner; plainly.
Now clear I understand
What oft . . . thoughts have searched in vain.
Milton.
2.
Without limitation; wholly; quite; entirely; as, to cut a piece clear off.
© Webster 1913.
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 fallure; 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.
© Webster 1913.
Clear (?), v. i.
1.
To become free from clouds or fog; to become fair; -- often fallowed by up, off, or away.
So foul a sky clears without a strom.
Shak.
Advise him to stay till the weather clears up.
Swift.
2.
To disengage one's self from incumbrances, distress, or entanglements; to become free.
[
He that clears at once will relapse; for finding himself out of straits, he will revert to the customs; but he that cleareth by degrees induceth a habit of frugality.
Bacon.
3. Banking
To make exchanges of checks and bills, and settle balances, as is done in a clearing house.
4.
To obtain a clearance; as, the steamer cleared for Liverpool to-day.
To clear out, to go or run away; to depart. [Colloq.]
© Webster 1913.