clear up

phrasal verb

cleared up; clearing up; clears up

1

of weather or the sky : to change so that there are no clouds, fog, etc.

The sky cleared up after the rain.

It's cloudy now, but it's clearing up gradually.

2

of the skin : to become free of marks or spots

My skin cleared up when I started using the cream.

3

: to go away

My symptoms cleared up once I started using the cream.

4

British : to make an area clean or tidy

Let's clear up before we leave.

Examples of clear up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Clear Debris Winter winds and storms tend to cause a lot of chaos in yards; as weather starts to calm down over the course of the month, February is an ideal opportunity to clear up old mulch, broken branches, piles of leaves, and any other debris that has accumulated. —Nishaa Sharma, The Spruce, 22 Feb. 2026

Rose Byrne would like to clear up something about her bearded dragon situation. —Shania Russell, Entertainment Weekly, 22 Feb. 2026

So much of the work has been clearing up misconceptions that have been intentionally put in the market. —Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 21 Feb. 2026

Warren tore her other ACL at the end of her college soccer career, recovered and relocated to Salt Lake City to commit to speed skating full-time, only to need another surgery a year later to clear up issues from the previous procedure. —Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 14 Feb. 2026

Rhymes for clear up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup