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. [1913 Webster]

He sweeps the skies and clears the cloudy north. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

2. To free from impurities; to clarify; to cleanse. [1913 Webster]

3. To free from obscurity or ambiguity; to relive of perplexity; to make perspicuous. [1913 Webster]

Many knotty points there are Which all discuss, but few can clear. --Prior. [1913 Webster]

4. To render more quick or acute, as the understanding; to make perspicacious. [1913 Webster]

Our common prints would clear up their understandings. --Addison [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

Clear your mind of cant. --Dr. Johnson. [1913 Webster]

A statue lies hid in a block of marble; and the art of the statuary only clears away the superfluous matter. --Addison. [1913 Webster]

6. To free from the imputation of guilt; to justify, vindicate, or acquit; -- often used with from before the thing imputed. [1913 Webster]

I . . . am sure he will clear me from partiality. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

How! wouldst thou clear rebellion? --Addison. [1913 Webster]

7. To leap or pass by, or over, without touching or failure; as, to clear a hedge; to clear a reef. [1913 Webster]

8. To gain without deduction; to net. [1913 Webster]

The profit which she cleared on the cargo. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]

{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. [1913 Webster]