To clear the land

Clear \Clear\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Cleared}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Clearing}.]
   1. To render bright, transparent, or undimmed; to free from
      clouds.
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            He sweeps the skies and clears the cloudy north.
                                                  --Dryden.
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   2. To free from impurities; to clarify; to cleanse.
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   3. To free from obscurity or ambiguity; to relive of
      perplexity; to make perspicuous.
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            Many knotty points there are
            Which all discuss, but few can clear. --Prior.
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   4. To render more quick or acute, as the understanding; to
      make perspicacious.
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            Our common prints would clear up their
            understandings.                       --Addison
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   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.
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            Clear your mind of cant.              --Dr. Johnson.
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            A statue lies hid in a block of marble; and the art
            of the statuary only clears away the superfluous
            matter.                               --Addison.
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   6. To free from the imputation of guilt; to justify,
      vindicate, or acquit; -- often used with from before the
      thing imputed.
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            I . . . am sure he will clear me from partiality.
                                                  --Dryden.
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            How! wouldst thou clear rebellion?    --Addison.
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   7. To leap or pass by, or over, without touching or failure;
      as, to clear a hedge; to clear a reef.
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   8. To gain without deduction; to net.
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            The profit which she cleared on the cargo.
                                                  --Macaulay.
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   {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.
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