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Appear vs Clear - What's the difference?

appear | clear |

In intransitive terms the difference between appear and clear

is that appear is to become visible to the apprehension of the mind; to be known as a subject of observation or comprehension, or as a thing proved; to be obvious or manifest while clear is of a check or financial transaction, to go through as payment; to be processed so that the money is transferred.

As an adjective clear is

transparent in colour.

As an adverb clear is

all the way; entirely.

As a noun clear is

full extent; distance between extreme limits; especially; the distance between the nearest surfaces of two bodies, or the space between walls.

appear

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • (label) To come or be in sight; to be in view; to become visible.
  • * 1611 , (w) 1:9:
  • And Godthe dry land appear .
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
  • , author=(Jeremy Bernstein), volume=100, issue=2, page=146, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= A Palette of Particles , passage=There were also particles no one had predicted that just appeared . Five of them […, i]n order of increasing modernity, […] are the neutrino, the pi meson, the antiproton, the quark and the Higgs boson.}}
  • (label) To come before the public.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.}}
  • (label) To stand in presence of some authority, tribunal, or superior person, to answer a charge, plead a cause, or the like; to present one's self as a party or advocate before a court, or as a person to be tried.
  • * 1611 , 5:10:
  • We must all appear before the judgment seat.
  • * (rfdate) (Thomas Babington Macaulay):
  • One ruffian escaped because no prosecutor dared to appear .
  • (label) To become visible to the apprehension of the mind; to be known as a subject of observation or comprehension, or as a thing proved; to be obvious or manifest.
  • * 1611 , 3:2:
  • It doth not yet appear what we shall be.
  • * (rfdate) (John Milton):
  • Of their vain contest appeared no end.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=18 citation , passage=‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]?  Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, magazine=(American Scientist)
  • , author= Philip J. Bushnell , title= Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance , passage=Surprisingly, this analysis revealed that acute exposure to solvent vapors at concentrations below those associated with long-term effects appears to increase the risk of a fatal automobile accident. Furthermore, this increase in risk is comparable to the risk of death from leukemia after long-term exposure to benzene,
  • To seem; to have a certain semblance; to look.
  • * 1611 , (w) 6:16:
  • They disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=5 citation , passage=Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.}}

    Usage notes

    * Senses 4, 5. This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See

    Synonyms

    * (seem) look

    Antonyms

    * (to become visible) disappear, vanish

    clear

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (contraction used in electronics)

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Transparent in colour.
  • Bright, not dark or obscured.
  • Free of obstacles.
  • * , chapter=1
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path
  • Without clouds.
  • *
  • Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
  • (lb) Of the sky, such that less than one eighth of its area is obscured by clouds.
  • Free of ambiguity or doubt.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=52, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The new masters and commanders , passage=From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much.
  • Distinct, sharp, well-marked.
  • (lb) Free of guilt, or suspicion.
  • * (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • Statesman, yet friend to truth! in soul sincere, / In action faithful, and in honour clear .
  • (lb) Without a thickening ingredient.
  • Possessing little or no perceptible stimulus.
  • (lb) Free from the influence of engrams; see .
  • Able to perceive clearly; keen; acute; penetrating; discriminating.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • Mother of science! now I feel thy power / Within me clear , not only to discern / Things in their causes, but to trace the ways / Of highest agents.
  • Not clouded with passion; serene; cheerful.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • With a countenance as clear / As friendship wears at feasts.
  • Easily or distinctly heard; audible.
  • * (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • Hark! the numbers soft and clear / Gently steal upon the ear.
  • Unmixed; entirely pure.
  • Without defects or blemishes, such as freckles or knots.
  • Without diminution; in full; net.
  • * (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
  • I often wished that I had clear , / For life, six hundred pounds a year.

    Antonyms

    * obscure * (of a soup) thick

    Derived terms

    * as clear as a bell * as clear as day * as clear as mud * clarity * clearly * clearness * crystal clear * free and clear * in the clear * keep a clear head * keep clear

    Adverb

    (-)
  • All the way; entirely.
  • I threw it clear across the river to the other side.
  • Not near something or touching it.
  • Stand clear of the rails, a train is coming.
  • free (or separate) from others
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2010 , date=December 29 , author=Chris Whyatt , title=Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Much soul-searching is going on at the west London club who, just seven weeks ago, were five points clear at the top of the table and playing with the verve with which they won the title last season. }}
  • (obsolete) In a clear manner; plainly.
  • * (rfdate) (Milton)
  • Now clear I understand.
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (lb) To remove obstructions or impediments from.
  • *1715–8 , (Matthew Prior), “Alma: or, The Progre?s of the Mind” in Poems on Several Occa?ions (1741), canto III, p.297:
  • *:Faith, Dick, I mu?t confe?s, ?tis true // (But this is only Entre Nous ) // That many knotty Points there are, // Which All di?cu?s, but Few can clear .
  • *(Joseph Addison) (1672–1719)
  • *:A statue lies hid in a block of marble; and the art of the statuary only clears away the superfluous matter.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=7 citation , passage=‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared .
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=29, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Unspontaneous combustion , passage=Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear' its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to ' clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.}}
  • (lb) To become freed from obstructions.
  • :
  • *
  • *:“A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; and she looked it, always trim and trig and smooth of surface like a converted yacht cleared for action. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable,.
  • (lb) To eliminate ambiguity or doubt from a matter; to clarify; especially, to clear up.
  • (lb) To remove from suspicion, especially of having committed a crime.
  • :
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:Iam sure he will clear me from partiality.
  • *(Joseph Addison) (1672–1719)
  • *:Wouldst thou clear rebellion?
  • (lb) To pass without interference; to miss.
  • :
  • (lb) To become clear.
  • :
  • (lb) Of a check or financial transaction, to go through as payment; to be processed so that the money is transferred.
  • :
  • To earn a profit of; to net.
  • :
  • * (1800-1859)
  • the profit which she cleared on the cargo
  • (lb) To obtain permission to use (a sample of copyrighted audio) in another track.
  • To disengage oneself from incumbrances, distress, or entanglements; to become free.
  • *1613 , (Francis Bacon), (second edition), essay 18: “ Of Expences”:
  • *:Be?ides, he that cleares' at once will relap?e: for finding him?elfe out of ?traights, he will reuert to his cu?tomes. But hee that ' cleareth by degrees, induceth an habite of frugality, and gaineth as well vpon his minde, as vpon his E?tate.
  • To obtain a clearance.
  • :
  • (lb) To defend by hitting (or kicking, throwing, heading etc.) the ball (or puck) from the defending goal.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 29, author=Chris Whyatt, title=Chelsea 1-0 Bolton
  • , work=BBC citation , passage=Bolton then went even closer when Elmander's cross was met by a bullet header from Holden, which forced a wonderful tip over from Cech before Drogba then cleared the resulting corner off the line.}}
  • To fell all trees of a forest.
  • To reset or unset; to return to an empty state or to zero.
  • :
  • Synonyms

    * (clear a forest) stub

    Derived terms

    * clear away * clear off * clear out * clear up * clearance * clearing

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (carpentry) Full extent; distance between extreme limits; especially; the distance between the nearest surfaces of two bodies, or the space between walls.
  • a room ten feet square in the clear

    Statistics

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