clear away

present singular third person clears away · participle present clearing away · participle past cleared away · past cleared away

1. transitiveTo tidy up, to remove mess or obstacles from a place to make it neat.

   1 more example

   Further along the gallery was the huge skeleton barrel of a brontosaurus. My museum hypothesis was confirmed. Going toward the side of the gallery I found what appeared to be sloping shelves, and clearing away the thick dust, I found the old familiar glass cases of our own time. But these must have been air-tight to judge from the fair preservation of some of their contents.

   1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “After the Story”, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 153

2. intransitiveTo leave, disappear.

   The showers should clear away tomorrow.

   1 more example

   Those who were nearest saw her head drop suddenly, as she choked upon her bosom; and then the cords burning through and through, the whole lifeless body tumbled forward into the embers, causing a considerable flutter of dust and smoke; and when it cleared away, there was nothing to be seen but a confused heap of ashes and dying embers.

   1827, Thomas Hood, The exile. The owl. The German knight. The Florentine kinsmen. The carrier's wife. The two faithful lovers of Sicily. The Venetan countess. A tale of the harem. The chestnut tree. The fair maid of Ludgate. The three brothers, page 123

3. figurativelytransitiveTo dispose of, to get rid of, to remove.

   1 more example

   A state ideology, mixing nationalism, and basic Marxist economics, going under the name "Juche", was constructed, and Kim Il-sung effectively silenced, disposed of and cleared away any opposition, isolating the country and exercising an iron grip on the military, the state media and the government and party organs.

   2011 December 19, Kerry Brown, “Kim Jong-il obituary”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Dec 2011

4. transitivenauticalTo prepare some object for use by removing obstacles, untying or unfastening it.

   Keep the ports closed, but clear away the port guns, and stand by for a broadside. Another two cable lengths and we have them.

   1897, Conan Doyle, The Dealings of Captain Sharkey with Stephen Craddock

   2 more examples

   The schooner was run into the wind, and while the hands were clearing away the stern boat, Queequeg, stripped to the waist, darted from the side with a long living arc of a leap.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Wheelbarrow”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 68

   "Hiram Jefferson and John Moreton to the pumps!" cried the captain. "Mr. Tomlinson, clear away the long boat and let us see if we may set her right, though I fear that she is past mending."

   1893, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Last Port”, in The Refugees: A Tale of Two Continents, volume III, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, part II (The New World), page 42