clearing
part of speech
noun (a clearing, clearings); verb form of clear (clearing)
meaning for a pupil
1) A clearing is an open space in a wood or forest where there are no trees. tree →
2) Clearing is the -ing form of the verb «clear»: taking things away so a place is empty, tidy or open (clearing the table, clearing snow). tree →
3) Clearing also describes weather getting brighter as clouds go away. tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories, characters walk through a dark forest and come out into a sunny clearing, often where something important happens. In everyday life children help with clearing the table or clearing up. In weather reports «clearing» means the rain is stopping. Phrases: a forest clearing, clearing up, clearing the table, clearing away.
examples
- The deer stood in a clearing in the forest. tree →
- We put up our tent in a small clearing. tree →
- Sunlight shone into the clearing. tree →
- I am clearing the table after dinner. tree →
- The workers are clearing snow from the road. tree →
- The sky is clearing, so we can go outside. tree →
- The children were clearing away the paints. tree →
- Now they reached a clearing in the forest and there stood a statue. tree →
note
As a noun it is countable (a clearing, two clearings). As a verb form: clear, clears, cleared, clearing. «Clear up» = tidy, or stop raining. In a clearing (not «on a clearing»).
In the corpora
- Clearing the name of the person you blamed, in front of the same people, is part of putting it right.
- Clearing his drawer, Kieran finds a photo of him and Tom in Year 2, gap-toothed, holding a frog.
- Clearing forests and ploughing can make soil erode many times faster than natural rates.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «clearing» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.