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Glite Dictionary
🌲 An empty forest area ✅ Obvious or definite 🪓 To cut all trees
to clearcut

to clearcut

5.6
To cut down all the trees in an area at once
  • verb
  • /ˈklɪrˌkʌt/
  • US
translation icon : deforestar
  • The company plans to clearcut the entire logging site to maximize timber production.

Examples

  • They decided to clearcut the forest to make way for a new housing development.

  • This tree has been selected to be cut and usually the company will only clearcut but this tree is in what they call a stream-side selection zone.

    END:CIV (2011)

  • They take a mountaintop, deforest the top of the mountain, clearcut it.

    Time to Choose (2015)

  • After the experiment's first year, they clearcut one block of the field's forest buffer, thinned another, and left intact a third block of mature forest closest to the stream.

    Academic text (1998)

  • After assessing the area, the team chose to clearcut the trees to prepare the land for agriculture.

Synonyms

to deforest
vsto clearcut
3 6.0

To cut down most trees in an area so very few remain

means cutting down all trees specifically rather than allowing some to remain
to clear-cut
vsto clearcut
  • Specialized
2 6.1

To cut down all the trees in an area at once

cuts down all trees but highlights land use change over single timing
to clear-cutting
vsto clearcut
  • Specialized
1 6.6

To cut down all the trees in an area at once

focuses on removing trees with emphasis on purpose rather than timing
to disforest
vsto clearcut
9.9

To cut down all trees in an area to use the land

uses cutting for logging or land use change, adding purpose to removal

How Thorough

to clearcut
  • US
5.6
to deforest
3 6.0
to log
37 4.4
to thin out
  • Informal
5 3.5

Surface Forms

clearcut infinitive
clearcut past
clearcut past participle
clearcutting present participle
clearcuts third person singular

Morphology

clearcut = clear + cut (transparent) = clear + cut

The verb is a straightforward compound verb formed from 'clear' + 'cut', meaning to make an area clear by cutting.

Etymology

Clearcut as a verb comes from clear ('empty, remove') and cut ('to cut'), so to clearcut is to cut down all the trees in a place at once.