clear up

English

Verb

clear up (third-person singular simple present clears up, present participle clearing up, simple past and past participle cleared up)

1. (transitive) To clarify, to correct a misconception.
2. (intransitive) To depart or disappear.

   All of their symptoms cleared up after the mold was removed.

3. (intransitive, of skin or medical images) To become free of certain blemishes.

   With the new cleanser, his skin cleared up in two weeks.

   His lung X-rays cleared up after they moved to Arizona.

4. (intransitive) Of stormy weather, to dissipate, to become calm.
   • 1731 (date written, published 1745), Jonathan Swift, “Directions to Servants”, in Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume XVI, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801, →OCLC:

     Advise him to stay a little longer till the weather clears up.

5. (UK, transitive, intransitive) To clean up.
   • 2019 October, Ian Walmsley, “Cleaning up”, in Modern Railways, page 43:

     Accepting that incidents will always happen, what then matters is how quickly we can clear up the mess, something British Rail was better at. [...] I would turn up as quickly as possible in the on-call Hillman Avenger and assess how quickly we could clear up.

6. (snooker, billiards, intransitive) To pot all of the remaining balls in a single turn.

Translations

clarify, correct a misconception

• German: aufklären (de)
• Irish: fuascail
• Swedish: klara upp, klara ut, uppklara (sv)

of stormy weather: dissipate, become calm

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 放晴 (zh) (fàngqíng)

• Galician: abrir (gl), escampar (gl), estiñar (gl), clarear (gl)
• German: aufklaren (de)
• Maori: tīhore
• Polish: uspokajać się impf, uspokoić się pf
• Spanish: escampar (es)

References

• “clear up”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• carpule