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CLEAR UP
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Free (the throat) by making a rasping sound
Example:
Clear the throat
Synonyms:
clear; clear up
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "clear up" is one way to...):
remove; take; take away; withdraw (remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something abstract)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Sense 2
Meaning:
Finish a task completely
Example:
I finally got through this homework assignment
Synonyms:
clear up; finish off; finish up; get through; mop up; polish off; wrap up
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "clear up" is one way to...):
complete; finish (come or bring to a finish or an end)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "clear up"):
cap off (finish or complete, as with some decisive action)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Sense 3
Meaning:
Make free from confusion or ambiguity; make clear
Example:
Clear up the question of who is at fault
Synonyms:
clear; clear up; crystalise; crystalize; crystallise; crystallize; elucidate; enlighten; illuminate; shed light on; sort out; straighten out
Classified under:
Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting
Hypernyms (to "clear up" is one way to...):
clarify; clear up; elucidate (make clear and (more) comprehensible)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sense 4
Meaning:
Make clear and (more) comprehensible
Example:
clarify the mystery surrounding her death
Synonyms:
clarify; clear up; elucidate
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Hypernyms (to "clear up" is one way to...):
explain; explicate (make plain and comprehensible)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "clear up"):
demystify (make less mysterious or remove the mystery from)
clear; clear up; crystalise; crystalize; crystallise; crystallize; elucidate; enlighten; illuminate; shed light on; sort out; straighten out (make free from confusion or ambiguity; make clear)
dilate; elaborate; enlarge; expand; expatiate; exposit; expound; flesh out; lucubrate (add details, as to an account or idea; clarify the meaning of and discourse in a learned way, usually in writing)
disambiguate (state unambiguously or remove ambiguities from)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Sense 5
Meaning:
Become clear
Example:
The sky cleared after the storm
Synonyms:
brighten; clear; clear up; light up
Classified under:
Verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
It is ----ing
Antonym:
overcast (make overcast or cloudy)
Context examples:
Up he went, clear up, beyond the ratlines, to the very masthead.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Clear up at Whitcross Brow, almost four miles off, and moor and moss all the way.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
"I did it," he explained, in order to clear up her bewilderment.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
My observations of No. 427, Park Lane did little to clear up the problem in which I was interested.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the guilty parties.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Ten minutes more made it certain that a bright afternoon would succeed, and justified the opinion of Mrs. Allen, who had “always thought it would clear up.”
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
I obeyed, and the two brutes picked up the senseless man like a sack of rubbish and hove him clear up the companion stairs, through the narrow doorway, and out on deck.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Ah, there you lay your finger upon the one point which we shall probably never be able to clear up.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
His excellency observed my countenance to clear up; he told me, with a sigh, that there his estate began, and would continue the same, till we should come to his house: that his countrymen ridiculed and despised him, for managing his affairs no better, and for setting so ill an example to the kingdom; which, however, was followed by very few, such as were old, and wilful, and weak like himself.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
