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Antonyms for clear up

Grammar : Verb
Spell : kleer
Phonetic Transcription : klɪər

Definition of clear up

Origin :
  • late 13c., "bright," from Old French cler "clear" (of sight and hearing), "light, bright, shining; sparse" (12c., Modern French clair), from Latin clarus "clear, loud," of sounds; figuratively "manifest, plain, evident," in transferred use, of sights, "bright, distinct;" also "illustrious, famous, glorious" (source of Italian chiaro, Spanish claro), from PIE *kle-ro-, from root *kele- (2) "to shout" (see claim (v.)).
  • The sense evolution involves an identification of the spreading of sound and the spreading of light (cf. English loud, used of colors; German hell "clear, bright, shining," of pitch, "distinct, ringing, high"). Of complexion, from c.1300; of the weather, from late 14c.; of meanings or explanations, "manifest to the mind, comprehensible," c.1300. (An Old English word for this was sweotol "distinct, clear, evident.") Sense of "free from encumbrance," apparently nautical, developed c.1500. Phrase in the clear attested from 1715. Clear-sighted is from 1580s (clear-eyed is from 1529s); clear-headed is from 1709.
  • verb explain; resolve
  • verb become improved
Example sentences :
  • Kitty, what fit came over you, to go to work and clear up at such rate?
  • Extract from : « Tip Lewis and His Lamp » by Pansy
  • Some day, perhaps, it will all clear up,—this trouble of yours.
  • Extract from : « The Black Bag » by Louis Joseph Vance
  • It needs acquaintance with society and social ways to clear up the latter.
  • Extract from : « A Dish Of Orts » by George MacDonald
  • I may be able to very soon, and clear up all this mysteriousness, that is worrying me so.
  • Extract from : « Frank Roscoe's Secret » by Allen Chapman
  • We'll clear up the whole of this ghost business, now we've got started.
  • Extract from : « Thankful's Inheritance » by Joseph C. Lincoln
  • I will adduce an example which will clear up my meaning, and will be a sort of witness to my words.
  • Extract from : « Laws » by Plato
  • The business of the legislator is to clear up this confusion.
  • Extract from : « Laws » by Plato
  • He would have given anything to know, but he dared not clear up the point.
  • Extract from : « Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard » by Joseph Conrad
  • But you can aid me to clear up several points that trouble me.
  • Extract from : « Up the Forked River » by Edward Sylvester Ellis
  • They are trying to clear up their ideas of themselves, and of the world.
  • Extract from : « Maxim Gorki » by Hans Ostwald

Synonyms for clear up

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019