Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act or process of clearing.
  • noun A space cleared; a clearing.
  • noun The amount of space or distance by which a moving object clears something.
  • noun The height or width of a passage.
  • noun An intervening space or distance allowing free play, as between machine parts.
  • noun Permission for an aircraft, ship, or other vehicle to proceed, as after an inspection of equipment or cargo or during certain traffic conditions.
  • noun Official certification of blamelessness, trustworthiness, or suitability.
  • noun A sale, generally at reduced prices, to dispose of old merchandise.
  • noun The passage of checks and other bills of exchange through a clearing-house.
  • noun The removal by the kidneys of a substance from blood plasma.
  • noun Renal clearance.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of clearing; riddance; removal of encumbrance or obstruction: as, the clearance of land from trees; the clearance of an estate from unprofitable tenantry.
  • noun Clear or net profit.
  • noun A certificate that a vessel has complied with the law and is authorized to leave port.
  • noun In steam-engines, the distance between the piston and the cylinder-cover, when the former is at the end of its stroke; similarly, free play for the parts of any other machine; clearing.
  • noun A piece of land which has been cleared for cultivation or for building; a clearing.
  • noun In railroading: A difference between the track-gage and the gage of the exterior surface of the wheel-flanges, designed to allow a certain amount of play between the flanges and the rails.
  • noun At a crossing or frog, the clear space left between cross-rails and the frog and guard-rail for the free passage of the flanges of the wheels.
  • noun The clear space between the sides and top of a tunnel or bridge and the outside dimensions of the largest car passing through it.
  • noun In steam-engines, the volume or entire space below the valve-face which is filled with steam at the beginning of a stroke, including the space between piston and cylinder-head and the volume of the steam-ducts to the valve-seat.
  • noun The settlement or payment of a debt; the passing of checks and drafts through the clearing-house for their settlement.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of clearing.
  • noun A certificate that a ship or vessel has been cleared at the customhouse; permission to sail.
  • noun Clear or net profit.
  • noun (Mach.) The distance by which one object clears another, as the distance between the piston and cylinder head at the end of a stroke in a steam engine, or the least distance between the point of a cogwheel tooth and the bottom of a space between teeth of a wheel with which it engages.
  • noun (Steam engine) the space inclosed in one end of the cylinder, between the valve or valves and the piston, at the beginning of a stroke; waste room. It includes the space caused by the piston's clearance and the space in ports, passageways, etc. Its volume is often expressed as a certain proportion of the volume swept by the piston in a single stroke.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of clearing or something (such as a space) cleared
  • noun The distance between two moving objects, especially between parts of a machine
  • noun The height or width of a tunnel, bridge or other passage, or the distance between a vehicle and the walls or roof of such passage; a gap, headroom.
  • noun A permission for a vehicle to proceed, or for a person to travel.
  • noun A permission to have access to sensitive or secret documents or other information
  • noun A sale of merchandise at a reduced price.
  • noun banking, finance The settlement of transactions involving securities or means of payment such as checks by means of a clearing house.
  • noun medicine The removal of harmful substances from the blood; renal clearance.
  • noun sports, billiards, snooker, pool The act of potting all the remaining balls on a table at one visit.
  • noun soccer The act of kicking a ball away from the goal one is defending.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the distance by which one thing clears another; the space between them
  • noun permission to proceed
  • noun vertical space available to allow easy passage under something

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

clear +‎ -ance

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Examples

  • In order to qualify for admission to medical school, generally speaking, an individual must be a middle school graduate-somewhat comparable to our high school graduation, have two years of work experience, then obtain clearance from the committee of the commune or factory that sent him to school.

    A Medical Mission to China 1973

  • The BMC and the charity commissioner's office records (available with DNA) show that the developers have not submitted the title clearance certificate and the commissioner has not given approval for the sale of the land.

    Daily News & Analysis 2010

  • I have to come back again for what they call a clearance for eye surgery.

    unknown title 2009

  • I have to come back again for what they call a clearance for eye surgery.

    unknown title 2009

  • In Australia, ASX is on the verge of losing its monopoly status as Chi-X Global Inc. is expected to gain clearance to form its own rival exchange possibly as early as the first quarter of 2011.

    ASX, Singapore Exchange in Talks Costas Paris 2010

  • You could rent an enclosed trailer and take it yourself for a whole lot less, once the customs broker gets clearance from the MX consulant.

    Freight Forwarder for Moving Stuff to Mexico 2009

  • Last year Washington state barred athletes younger than 18 with concussion symptoms from returning to their sports without clearance from a licensed health care provider and several other states have followed suit.

    Concussions In Sports: Athletes' Head Injuries Should Be Reviewed, Experts Say AP 2010

  • You could rent an enclosed trailer and take it yourself for a whole lot less, once the customs broker gets clearance from the MX consulant.

    Freight Forwarder for Moving Stuff to Mexico 2009

  • Last year Washington state barred athletes younger than 18 with concussion symptoms from returning to their sports without clearance from a licensed health care provider and several other states have followed suit.

    Concussions In Sports: Athletes' Head Injuries Should Be Reviewed, Experts Say AP 2010

  • Chi-X is expected to gain clearance to form a rival exchange possibly as early as the first quarter of 2011, creating a major competitor that is likely to eat at ASX's trading volumes.

    ASX, Singapore Exchange in Partnership Talks Costas Paris 2010

Comments

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  • antitrust clearance methods: Approval for promoting competition on markets.

    September 20, 2010