clearing

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

• noun The act or process of making or becoming clear.
• noun A tract of land within a wood or other overgrown area from which trees and other obstructions have been removed.
• noun The exchange of checks, drafts, and notes and the settlement of consequent differences, especially among banks.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of making clear.
• noun In calico-printing, the operation of removing superfluous dye from the cloth, by washing, treating with bran and soap, and grass-bleaching.
• noun In glass manufacturing, the keeping of molten glass in a thinly fluid condition, to permit impurities and all uncombined substances to separate and settle to the bottom, leaving the glass clear. This is assisted by agitation, first by the escape of the gases disengaged, and, when this ceases, by stirring with iron ladles or poles, and finally by introducing some substance containing water, which is pushed to the bottom, and there evolves steam, which works upward through the mass.
• noun In galvanizing sheet-iron, the operation of removing oxid from the surface of the plates under treatment by immersing them in muriatic acid.
• noun In banking, the mutual exchange between banks of checks and drafts, and the settlement of the differences. The place where this is effected is called a clearing-house (which see).
• noun In English railway management, the act of distributing among the different companies the proceeds of the through traffic passing over several railways. The necessary calculations are made in the railway clearing-house in London.
• noun That which is cleared, or is cleared away; specifically, in the plural, the total of the claims to be settled at a clearing-house.
• noun A place or tract of land cleared of wood for cultivation.
• noun The amount of free play or space between the cogs of two geared wheels when fitted together.

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

• noun The act or process of making clear.
• noun A tract of land cleared of wood for cultivation.
• noun A method adopted by banks and bankers for making an exchange of checks held by each against the others, and settling differences of accounts.
• noun The gross amount of the balances adjusted in the clearing house.
• noun the establishment where the business of clearing is carried on. See above, 3.

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

• verb Present participle of clear.
• noun The act or process of making or becoming clear.
• noun An area of land within a wood or forest devoid of trees.
• noun An open space in the fog etc.
• noun banking, finance A process of exchanging transaction information and authorisation through a central institution or system to complete and settle those transactions.
• noun telecommunications A sequence of events used to disconnect a call, and return to the ready state.
• noun UK The period in which remaining university places are allocated to remaining students.
• noun soccer The act of removing the ball from one's own goal area by kicking it.

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

• noun the act of freeing from suspicion
• noun a tract of land with few or no trees in the middle of a wooded area
• noun the act of removing solid particles from a liquid