all clear
26
3.2
- noun
- Formal
:
visto bueno
- Everyone cheered when the all clear signal was finally sounded, indicating it was safe to return outside.
- give the all clear
- all clear signal
- wait for the all clear
Examples
-
Quarterback Matt Cassell is recovering from a concussion, but has been given the all clear to return to no-contact practices.
Blog text (27) -
The attack came 45 minutes after the "all clear" had been sounded from a previous alert.
Blog text (9) -
We're eventually given the all clear and we went to our housing.
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Please stay where you are until the All Clear sound.
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Sound the all clear, and invite him to dinner.
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We cannot give the all-clear until each and every building has been checked.
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We stayed down there until we heard the all-clear from one of the local TV stations.
Blog text (22) -
Tense eyes sweeping the street, they finally give the all-clear signal.
Fiction book (1995) -
But team doctor Donato Villani has given the teenager the all-clear to play in Friday's group.
Blog text (19) -
The emergency personnel announced that the all clear had been given after the storm passed.
Antonyms
How Safe
Surface Forms
Morphology
A B1 learner who knows 'all' and 'clear' can readily infer the core sense 'everything is clear' or 'no danger remains', so the general idea that it is safe after an emergency is derivable from the parts. However, the noun use as a conventional 'official signal' (the all-clear) is a conventionalized extension and somewhat lexicalized, so the exact pragmatic/formal usage may not be fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
All clear comes from emergency signals after danger. When a siren sounded or a voice said 'all clear', it meant everything, all, was free of danger, clear, so the phrase became an official message that it is 'safe' to come out.