▪ I. clearing, vbl. n.
(ˈklɪərɪŋ)
[f. clear v.]
1. a. The action of the vb. clear, in various senses: brightening; clarifying; elucidation; exculpation, etc.
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 143 Þe fourþe dower and þe laste is cleryng of mannis bodi whan it shyneþ briȝt in hevene as þe sunne or oþer sterres. c 1449 Pecock Repr. iii. vii. 316 For the more cleering that the ensaumpling..makith no boond. 1599 Bilson (title), The Effect of certaine Sermons, touching the full Redemption of Mankind..with a cleering of certain objections maid against the said doctrine. 1604 Dee in Hearne Collect. 3 Nov. 1705 (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) I. 64 Upon his said Justification, and Clearing. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Clearing, of Beer, the same as Fining. 1883 Lloyd Ebb & Flow II. 137 Not without a certain clearing of his countenance. |
b. with advbs.
| 1791 ‘G. Gambado’ Acad. Horsem. (1809) 65 The clearing up of some of the most blind descriptions. 1837 Browning Strafford v. ii, The curious glosses, subtle notices, Ingenious clearings-up. 1840 Mill Diss. & Disc., Armand Carrel (1859) I. 266 note, There sometimes comes one great clearing-off, one day of reckoning called a revolution. |
c. The washing of calico to remove excess dye.
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts I. 164 Bran..is advantageously employed by the calico printers, in the clearing process. 1876 Encycl. Brit. IV. 688/1 The operations of clearing are necessary to remove all the dye-stuff which is loosely attached to the whites, and to develop and brighten the tints of dyed pattern. |
2. The removal of encumbrances or obstructions; freeing from debt.
| 1580 North Plutarch 203 The controversie they had with the nobility about clearing of debts. 1870 Proctor Other Worlds xii. 293 A clearing of star-material from certain regions. 1877 A. B. Edwards Up Nile xviii. 489 A little clearing of the sand here and there, led to further discoveries. |
3. spec. The clearing of land from trees or other obstructions to cultivation.
| 1860 All Y. Round No. 75. 585 He plunged into the forest..took possession of the shanty, and began his clearing. |
4. A piece of land cleared for cultivaton,
esp. in the primeval forest.
| 1823 F. Cooper Pioneer i, There was what in the language of the country was called a clearing. 1853 Mrs. Moodie (title) Life in the Clearings Versus the Bush. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. I. iii. 49 The idea of a forest clearing is not necessary to the mark. 1887 Lowell Democr. 243 A tiny clearing pared from the edge of the wood. |
† 5. Comm. = clearance 5.
| 1683 Penn. Archives I. 77 An Account of John Hill of his Entries and Clearings. 1769 De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. I. 141 Here all outward-bound Ships must stop..and suffer what they call a second Clearing. |
6. The passing of cheques or bills, etc., through a clearing-house.
| 1883 Stubb's Mercantile Gaz. 8 Nov. 982 A proposal..for the more expeditious clearing of London cheques continues to excite public attention. |
† 7. Mil. See
quot. 1816.
| 1689 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 497 They shall have subsistence money and clearings constantly paid as usuall. 1701 Ibid. V. 11 The lord Ranelagh is paying 2 months clearings to the forces in England. 1781 Rep. Comm. Public Acc. in Grose Mil. Antiq. (1812) II. 176 This un-issued subsistence of the British forces..continues in his [the paymaster-general's] hands till the accounts of the several regiments are made up, when it falls into the clearings, and is issued to the agents. 1816 James Milit. Dict., The balance of the pay of the officers, over and above their subsistence, after the warrant deductions are made, and the respited pay, if there is any, is charged to the Officer, is called Clearings; which are paid by the paymaster to the agent, who pays them to the officers. |
8. attrib. and
Comb., as
clearing-bank, a bank that is a member of a clearing-house,
spec. of the London Clearing House;
clearing-banker: see clearing-house b;
clearing-beck, a
beck (
n.4) or vat used in calico-printing;
clearing-hospital Mil., a hospital for the temporary reception and treatment of sick and wounded;
clearing-nut, a tree-fruit used by the Indians to clear muddy water for use; also the tree (
Strychnos potatorum);
clearing-pan = clarifier 2;
clearing-ring (
Angling), a jointed ring which is slipped down the reel line to free it and the hook when entangled in an obstacle;
clearing-station = clearing-hospital;
clearing-stone, a fine stone used for sharpening curriers' knives.
| 1883 Bankers' Mag. XLIII. 646 We subjoin figures which have been obtained by the kind consent of the manager of one of our *clearing banks. 1933 B. Ellinger This Money Business v. 39 The ‘Big Five’..have about 90 per cent of the deposits of all these clearing banks. 1955 Times 25 Aug. 15/1 When the clearing banks struck their August figures on the 17th of this month the instructions from head offices to branches on the need to cut down advances had only been received about a week. |
| 1914 Lancet 28 Nov. 1274/2 The *clearing hospital, situated a little distance behind the fighting line, receives all the wounded of a division and is equipped to deal at once with the most serious cases. |
| 1842 Penny Cycl. XXIII. 152/2 Strychnos potatorum, *Clearing-nut, has..berries containing only one seed. 1866 Treas. Bot. 1106/2 The seeds known in that country [India] as Clearing Nuts. |
| 1787 Best Angling (ed. 2) 15 A *clearing ring, which is of use to disengage the hook when entangled. 1875 Stonehenge Brit. Sports i. v. iii. 346 Recourse must be had to a long forked stick or the clearing-ring. |
| 1915 A. Huxley Let. 26 Apr. (1969) 69 Whereabouts unknown—but a wire from the *clearing-station brought back by one of Dr. H's assistants in France, prognosticates 3 weeks. 1933 Blunden & Norman We'll shift our Ground ii. xii. 82 The place that had been for a few years of all its obscure age a noted training camp or clearing station. |
| 1860 Ure Dict. Arts (ed. 5) II. 687 [The currier's knife] is..rubbed on a fine Scotch or Welsh stone called a *clearing-stone. |
▸
Brit. Educ. The centralized system in which prospective undergraduates not yet offered a place at university or a similar institution are matched to and offered unfilled places before the start of the academic year.
| [1961 W. D. Furneaux Chosen Few 114 Applications should in the first instance be received by a central clearing-house, and not by the universities to which they were directed, and that decisions regarding applications should be communicated to the clearing-house but not (at first) to the candidates themselves.] 1965 How to apply for Admission to University 21 Clearing applies only to candidates living in the United Kingom. 1984 Guardian (Nexis) 21 Aug. Many university departments don't need to call on clearing at all; fewer than one in four clearing candidates obtain a place and only 8 per cent of all university entrants get places in this way. 2003L. Archer in L. Archer et al. Higher Educ. & Social Class vi. 131 These findings suggest that young and mature working-class students (who often come through clearing and may be less prepared due to no family history of HE participation) may..be at greater risk of non-completion. |
▪ II. ˈclearing, ppl. a. [f. as prec. + -ing2.] That clears or becomes clear.
| 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 623 When the clearing North will puff the Clouds away. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 138 When by clearing brooks I've been. |