Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🧹 To empty completely 😮‍💨 To remove mucus
to clear out

to clear out

2 4.6
Remove mucus from the chest or lungs by coughing
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : expulsar
  • It's really good at clearing your nostrils out of the goops.

It's really good at clearing your nostrils out of the goops.

Examples

  • "She coughed several times to try and clear out her lungs.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • That oughta clear out half the health clubs and all the high school teams.

    Zombie Nightmare (1987)

  • I thought it was going to come clear out of my chest."

    Leave It to Beaver (1997)

  • We cleared out the mucus, and he's fine.

    Paranoia (2013)

  • He coughed several times to try and clear out his lungs.

  • The doctor advised her to drink plenty of warm fluids to help clear out the mucus.

  • After the procedure, he felt much better as he managed to clear out the phlegm from his chest.

Synonyms

to expectorate
vsto clear out
  • Specialized
1 9.9

To cough up and spit out mucus from the throat or lungs

is used to make the chest free of mucus often by coughing it out
to cough out
vsto clear out
1 4.1

To force mucus out of the lungs through the mouth

is a general process to free the chest not only a single forceful cough
to decongest
vsto clear out
4.0

To clear a blocked nose or chest so air moves more easily

targets broad relief of blockage not specifically removing mucus by cough

Antonyms

to congest
1 5.3

To block or fill a place so things cannot move through it

How Clear

to clear out
2 4.6
to cough up
8 4.6
to cough
254 1.0

Surface Forms

clear out infinitive
cleared out past
cleared out past participle
clearing out present participle
clears out third person singular

Morphology

clear + out

The verb 'clear' (to remove) plus the particle 'out' (away from the interior) composes directly to mean removing something from inside to outside, so applied to chest/lungs it transparently denotes expelling mucus. This motion/evacuation sense is cross-linguistically common and follows a regular phrasal-verb composition that a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer.

Etymology

Clear out for the chest or lungs comes from the image of coughing to push mucus out so the airways become clear. So, to clear out the chest means to remove mucus and make breathing 'easier'.