*clear*

a. [ Compar. Clearer superl. Clearest. ] [ OE. cler, cleer, OF. cler, F. clair, fr.L. clarus, clear, bright, loud, distinct, renowned; perh. akin to L. clamare to call, E. claim. Cf. Chanticleer, Clairvoyant, Claret, Clarify. ] 1. Free from opaqueness; transparent; bright; light; luminous; unclouded. [ 1913 Webster ]

The stream is so transparent, pure, and clear. Denham. [ 1913 Webster ]

Fair as the moon, clear as the sun. Canticles vi. 10. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Free from ambiguity or indistinctness; lucid; perspicuous; plain; evident; manifest; indubitable. [ 1913 Webster ]

One truth is clear; whatever is, is right. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Able to perceive clearly; keen; acute; penetrating; discriminating; as, a clear intellect; a clear head. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Not clouded with passion; serene; cheerful. [ 1913 Webster ]

With a countenance as clear
As friendship wears at feasts. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Easily or distinctly heard; audible; canorous. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hark! the numbers soft and clear
Gently steal upon the ear. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Without mixture; entirely pure; as, clear sand. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. Without defect or blemish, such as freckles or knots; as, a clear complexion; clear lumber. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. Free from guilt or stain; unblemished. [ 1913 Webster ]

Statesman, yet friend to truth! in soul sincere,
In action faithful, and in honor clear. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. Without diminution; in full; net; as, clear profit. [ 1913 Webster ]

I often wished that I had clear,
For life, six hundred pounds a-year. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

10. Free from impediment or obstruction; unobstructed; as, a clear view; to keep clear of debt. [ 1913 Webster ]

My companion . . . left the way clear for him. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

11. Free from embarrassment; detention, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

The cruel corporal whispered in my ear,
Five pounds, if rightly tipped, would set me clear. Gay. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. 1. In a clear manner; plainly. [ 1913 Webster ]

Now clear I understand
What oft . . . thoughts have searched in vain. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Without limitation; wholly; quite; entirely; as, to cut a piece clear off. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Cleared p. pr. & vb. n. Clearing. ] 1. To render bright, transparent, or undimmed; to free from clouds. [ 1913 Webster ]

He sweeps the skies and clears the cloudy north. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To free from impurities; to clarify; to cleanse. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To free from obscurity or ambiguity; to relive of perplexity; to make perspicuous. [ 1913 Webster ]

Many knotty points there are
Which all discuss, but few can clear. Prior. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To render more quick or acute, as the understanding; to make perspicacious. [ 1913 Webster ]

Our common prints would clear up their understandings. Addison [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Clear your mind of cant. Dr. Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

A statue lies hid in a block of marble; and the art of the statuary only clears away the superfluous matter. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. To free from the imputation of guilt; to justify, vindicate, or acquit; -- often used with from before the thing imputed. [ 1913 Webster ]

I . . . am sure he will clear me from partiality. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

How! wouldst thou clear rebellion? Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. To leap or pass by, or over, without touching or failure; as, to clear a hedge; to clear a reef. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. To gain without deduction; to net. [ 1913 Webster ]

The profit which she cleared on the cargo. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To become free from clouds or fog; to become fair; -- of the weather; -- often followed by up, off, or away. [ 1913 Webster ]

So foul a sky clears not without a storm. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Advise him to stay till the weather clears up. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ PJC ]

3. To disengage one's self from incumbrances, distress, or entanglements; to become free. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Banking) To make exchanges of checks and bills, and settle balances, as is done in a clearing house. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To obtain a clearance; as, the steamer cleared for Liverpool to-day. [ 1913 Webster ]

To clear out, to go or run away; to depart. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of removing anything; clearance. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of clearing; as, to make a thorough clearance. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A certificate that a ship or vessel has been cleared at the customhouse; permission to sail. [ 1913 Webster ]

Every ship was subject to seizure for want of stamped clearances. Durke [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Clear or net profit. Trollope. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Mach.) The distance by which one object clears another, as the distance between the piston and cylinder head at the end of a stroke in a steam engine, or the least distance between the point of a cogwheel tooth and the bottom of a space between teeth of a wheel with which it engages. [ 1913 Webster ]

Clearance space (Steam engine), the space inclosed in one end of the cylinder, between the valve or valves and the piston, at the beginning of a stroke; waste room. It includes the space caused by the piston's clearance and the space in ports, passageways, etc. Its volume is often expressed as a certain proportion of the volume swept by the piston in a single stroke. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. claire colle clear glue; clair clear (f. claire) + colle glue, Gr. &unr_;. ] A priming of size mixed with whiting or white lead, used in house painting, etc.; also, a size upon which gold leaf is applied in gilding. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Clearcoled p. pr. & vb. n. Clearcoling ] To coat or paint with clearcole. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. 1. Having a sharp, distinct outline, like that of a cameo. [ 1913 Webster ]

She has . . . a cold and clear-cut face. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Concisely and distinctly expressed. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Distinct and unambiguous; unquestionable; as, a clear-cut advantage. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To cut (a region of forest) clear of all trees. It is a method used for efficiently logging a portion of forest, but often has undesirable effects on the environment. [ PJC ]

n. The quality of being cleared. [ 1913 Webster ]

Imputed by his friends to the clearedness, by his foes to the searedness, of his conscience. T. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who, or that which, clears. [ 1913 Webster ]

Gold is a wonderful clearer of the understanding. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Naut.) A tool of which the hemp for lines and twines, used by sailmakers, is finished. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. Acutely perceptive or discerning.
Syn. -- clear-sighted; perceptive; percipient; perspicacious; clear-headed. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Having a clear understanding; quick of perception; intelligent. “He was laborious and clear-headed.” Macaulay.

-- Clear"-head`ed*ness, n. [1913 Webster]

n. 1. The act or process of making clear. [ 1913 Webster ]

The better clearing of this point. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A tract of land cleared of wood for cultivation. [ 1913 Webster ]

A lonely clearing on the shores of Moxie Lake. J. Burroughs. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A method adopted by banks and bankers for making an exchange of checks held by each against the others, and settling differences of accounts. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In England, a similar method has been adopted by railroads for adjusting their accounts with each other. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. The gross amount of the balances adjusted in the clearing house. [ 1913 Webster ]

Clearing house, the establishment where the business of clearing is carried on. See above, 3. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a clear manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality or state of being clear.

Syn. -- Clearness, Perspicuity. Clearness has reference to our ideas, and springs from a distinct conception of the subject under consideration. Perspicuity has reference to the mode of expressing our ideas and belongs essentially to style. Hence we speak of a writer as having clear ideas, a clear arrangement, and perspicuous phraseology. We do at times speak of a person's having great clearness of style; but in such cases we are usually thinking of the clearness of his ideas as manifested in language. “Whenever men think clearly, and are thoroughly interested, they express themselves with perspicuity and force.” Robertson. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having a clear physical or mental vision; having a clear understanding. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Shining brightly. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Seeing with clearness; acutely perceptive, discerning; as, clear-sighted reason.
Syn. -- clear-eyed, perceptive, percipient, perspicacious, clear-headed. [ 1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5 ]

2. having sharp clear vision. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. Acute discernment. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Clearstarched p. pr. & vb. n. Clearstraching. ] To stiffen with starch, and then make clear by clapping with the hands; as, to clearstarch muslin. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who clearstarches. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. able to think clearly and accurately. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Zool.) A lepidopterous insect with partially transparent wings, of the family Ægeriadæ, of which the currant and peach-tree borers are examples. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. (Arch.) The upper story of the nave of a church, containing windows, and rising above the aisle roofs. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Biol.) Of or pertaining to, or located on the inside of a nucleus; taking place within a nucleus; referring especially to the nucleus of a cell; as, the intranuclear network of fibrils, seen in the first stages of karyokinesis. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Multi- + nuclear. ] (Biol.) Containing many nuclei; as, multinuclear cells. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. 1. Of or pertaining to a nucleus; as, the nuclear spindle (see Illust. of Karyokinesis) or the nuclear fibrils of a cell; the nuclear part of a comet, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. of, pertaining to, or using nuclear weapons; a nuclear exchange, i.e. a reciprocal bombardment by nuclear weapons.. [ PJC ]

2. Of, pertaining to, or powered by atomic energy; same as nuclear-powered; as, a nuclear submarine; a nuclear power plant. [ PJC ]

3. Of or pertaining to nations possessing nuclear weapons; as, the nuclear club. [ PJC ]

n. an explosive device, whether used as a weapon or for other purposes, which depends for most of its explosive power on the release of energy from within atomic nuclei. A fission device or a fusion device. [ PJC ]

n. Energy derived from nuclear reactions; -- used at present especially of electrical power generated in atomic reactors, but encompassing also fusion energy.
Syn. -- atomic energy, atomic power, nuclear energy, nuclear power. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. The branch of engineering concerned with the design and construction and operation of nuclear reactors. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. The explosion of an atomic bomb or atomic device; -- sometimes also used of fusion-powered explosions.
Syn. -- atomic explosion. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A family consisting of parents and their children and grandparents of a marital partner. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A nuclear reaction in which a heavy atomic nucleus splits into smaller nuclei with the simultaneous release of energy.
Syn. -- fission. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A type of nuclear reaction in which atomic nuclei combine to form more massive nuclei with the simultaneous release of energy. Syn. -- fusion, nuclear fusion reaction. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A nuclear reaction in which nuclei combine to form more massive nuclei with the simultaneous release of energy. Syn. -- fusion, nuclear fusion. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Physics) The specific absorption and re-emission of electromagnetic radiation at characteristic wavelengths by atomic nuclei in a magnetic field. It is abbreviated NMR. The wavelength of the radiation absorbed depends on the type of nucleus, the intensity of the magnetic field, and the local chemical environment in which the nucleus resides. It is the latter effect (called the chemical shift), by which atoms of specific elements in different chemical compounds show a different resonance frequency, which gives rise to the greatest utility of this phenomenon in analyzing the chemical structure of substances. Similar effects of the chemical environment permit the discrimination of different types of living tissue by virtue of their different chemical composition, thus permitting utilization of the phenomenon in medical diagnostic instruments, especially for magnetic resonance imaging. [ PJC ]

n. A scientist specializing in nuclear physics. [ PJC ]

n. That branch of physics which studies the structure of and phenomena observed in atomic nuclei. [ PJC ]

n. 1. Power derived from nuclear reactions; -- used at present especially of electrical power generated in atomic reactors, but encompassing also fusion power.
Syn. -- atomic energy, atomic power, nuclear energy, nuclear energy. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. A country possessing nuclear weapons. [ PJC ]

n. A ship for which the motive power comes from the energy generated by a nuclear reactor. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A submarine for which the motive power comes from the energy generated by a nuclear reactor. Same as nuclear submarine. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A process that alters the energy or structure or composition of an atomic nucleus. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (phys.) Any of several devices that maintain and control a sustained nuclear fission chain reaction, for the production of energy, heat, or artificial elements, or for research purposes. The main fuel sustaining the reaction and consumed by the process is typically uranium or plutonium. Syn. -- reactor, atomic pile, fission reactor, nuclear pile [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. (Physics) The resonance absorption of a gamma ray by a nucleus identical to the nucleus that emitted the gamma ray. [ WordNet 1.5 ]