clear up

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

1. transitiveTo clarify, to correct a misconception.
2. intransitiveTo depart or disappear.

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

3. intransitiveTo become free of certain blemishes.

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

   1 more example

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

4. intransitiveOf stormy weather, to dissipate, to become calm.

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

   1731 (date written; published 1745), [Jonathan] Swift, Directions to Servants […], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], and M. Cooper, […], →OCLC

5. UKintransitivetransitiveTo clean up.

   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.

   2019 October, Ian Walmsley, “Cleaning up”, in Modern Railways, page 43

6. intransitiveball gamesTo pot all of the remaining balls in a single turn.