1
[ verb ] make free from confusion or ambiguity; make clear

Examples

: "Could you clarify these remarks?" "Clear up the question of who is at fault"

Used in print

(Joyce O. Hertzler, American Social Institutions;...)

The kind of religious experience that most moderns seek not_only provides , clarifies , and relates human yearnings , values , ideals , and purposes ; it also provides facilities and incitements for the development of personality , sociality , and creativeness .

(William Maxwell, The Chateau....)

And in_any_case , answers may clarify but they do not change anything .

2
[ verb ] make clear or clearer

Examples

"Clarify your ideas, please"

Used in print

(S. Idell Pyle, et al., Onsets, Completions, and...)

This difference is readily clarified by referring to Table 1 .

(Jacob Robbins et al., "The thyroid-stimulating...)

This connection was clarified by Smith and Smith ( 1922 ) , who showed that saline extracts of fresh bovine pituitary_glands could re-activate the atrophied thyroids of hypophysectomised tadpoles .

Related terms

obscure change demystify

3
[ verb ] make clear and (more) comprehensible

Synonyms

clear_up elucidate

Examples

"clarify the mystery surrounding her death"

Used in print

(Musical America, LXXXI:5...)

By 1937 he had clarified his intentions to serve his people : `` I have striven for clarity and melodious idiom , but at_the_same_time I have by_no_means attempted to restrict myself to the accepted methods of harmony and melody .

(James Boylan, "Mutinity"...)

First , they wanted to clarify a tantalizing , bizarre enigma .

(Morton A. Kaplan and Nicholas de B. Katzenbach,...)

When the power of the latter was made both limited and explicit - when norms were clarified and made more precise and the creation of new norms was placed exclusively in parliamentary hands - two purposes were served : Government was made subservient to an institutionalized popular will , and law became a rational system for implementing that will , for serving conscious goals , for embodying the `` public policy '' .

4
[ verb ] make clear by removing impurities or solids, as by heating

Examples

"clarify the butter" "clarify beer"

Related terms

change cooking

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