clear away

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clear away

1. To move someone or something aside, especially if it causes an obstruction or is no longer needed. Now that I've cleared away those overgrown bushes, our living room gets so much more sunlight! Tell the busboys to go and clear away all the dinner plates so that we can start serving dessert.

2. To move away from something. The sound of approaching sirens caused most of the partiers to clear away.

clear something away

to take something away. Please clear the children's toys away. Would you clear away the dishes?

clear away

1. To remove something that is covering some area, especially something that is no longer being used: She cleared away the snow on the sidewalk so that no one would slip. I cleared the dishes away after dinner.

2. To move away from some place: He cleared away from the dangerous cliff. The crowd cleared away when the police arrived.

3. To make someone or some group move away from some place: The troopers cleared the crowd away from the crime scene. The police cleared away the crowd in preparation for the celebrity's arrival.

See also: away, clear

References in classic literature ?

It was hard getting into my dress alone, and I hadn't time to eat but a mouthful, and just at the last minute, when I honestly--HONESTLY --would have thought about clearing away and locking up, I looked at the clock and knew I could hardly get back to school in time to form in the line; and I thought how dreadful it would be to go in late and get my first black mark on a Friday afternoon, with the minister's wife and the doctor's wife and the school committee all there!"

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All hands now set to work cutting down trees, clearing away thickets, and marking out the place for the residence, storehouse, and powder magazine, which were to be built of logs and covered with bark.

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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.

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They stopped one day at the foot of a high mountain, and, clearing away the brush and stones at a certain place, an entrance to a great cavern was revealed.

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COUNCIL workers spent 90 minutes clearing away a smashed-up caravan which had been dumped behind a row of shops.

Owner dumps caravan shell; council left to clean up fly-tipping

PPP Chairman said that Nawaz Sharif is trying to solve his personal problems and clearing away allegations of corruption even at the cost of weakening democracy.

Bilawal Zardari extends conditional offer to hold talks with Nawaz Sharif

Mrs M Dawson from Field Street in Marsh said: "They flushed out the kidney system, clearing away all the sediment and took the rheumatism away from my back."

ON THIS DAY 1916: Huddersfield [...]

Protect them from hurting themselves by clearing away any sharp furniture, glass or heat.

FIRST-AID MISTAKES

By clearing away all the snow from your car, you can get on the road sooner and clearly see where you are going.

Four secrets to greener winter driving

Workers were clearing away in the early hours when two masked men burst in to the Clwydian on Prestatyn High Street yesterday.

HELD HOSTAGE AT KNIFEPOINT; PPUUBB SSTTAAFFFF IINN AARRMMEEDD RRAAIIDD TTEERRRROORR

Work will include clearing away litter, painting lock gates and cleaning graffiti, as well as starting a community arts project and canal warden scheme.

Clean-up on city canals

A Monaghan County Council spokesman said the local authority had spent more than E1million over the past 18 months in clearing away toxic fuel sludge dumped on roads near the border.

Diesel gang hunted

The Mosquito device - which is inaudible to most people over 20 but very irritating to anyone younger - won praise for clearing away yobs from shopping centres, takeaway shops and street corners.