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

Invasive mussels have even promoted the growth of Cladophora by clearing up the water and allowing more light to shine to the bottom. —Caitlin Looby, jsonline.com, 23 Jan. 2026

The issues that affected X Thursday seemed to have cleared up within 30 minutes of the initial outage reports. —Todd Spangler, Variety, 22 Jan. 2026

The incident closed both sides of the freeway and took until evening to clear up. —Jalen Williams, Freep.com, 20 Jan. 2026

The issues started to clear up as Demary’s comfortability in the system grew, with the Georgia transfer starring and playing over 30 minutes in each of the next three games. —Joe Arruda, Hartford Courant, 19 Jan. 2026

Rhymes for clear up

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