"clear the air" meaning in English

See clear the air in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-clear the air.wav Forms: clears the air [present, singular, third-person], clearing the air [participle, present], cleared the air [participle, past], cleared the air [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} clear the air (third-person singular simple present clears the air, present participle clearing the air, simple past and past participle cleared the air)
  1. (idiomatic) To assuage a hostile or uncomfortable situation. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: dust settles, pour oil on troubled waters Translations (to assuage a hostile situation): puhdistaa ilmapiiriä (Finnish), puhdistaa ilmaa (Finnish), crever l’abcès (French), mettre les choses au clair (French), détendre l’atmosphère (French), oczyszczać atmosferę [imperfective] (Polish), oczyścić atmosferę [perfective] (Polish), разряди́ть атмосфе́ру (razrjadítʹ atmosféru) (Russian), apaciguar los ánimos (Spanish), templar gaitas (Spanish), aclarar las cosas (Spanish), rensa luften (Swedish)

Inflected forms

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    {
      "form": "clears the air",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
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    },
    {
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        "participle",
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    },
    {
      "form": "cleared the air",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
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    {
      "form": "cleared the air",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "add fuel to the fire"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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          "source": "w"
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
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        {
          "kind": "other",
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Swedish translations",
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          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1976 August 7, Kathy Guilmette, “Devil's Advocate”, in Gay Community News, page 4:",
          "text": "After much bitter in-fighting over the issue of the BF and other issues, I felt it was time to clear the air rather than deal in back-biting.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, David Judson, Are You Attackable?: Embracing God During the Battles In Life:",
          "text": "This relationship began when you went to the Father and cleared the air by asking Him to forgive your past mistakes and sins.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 December 23, “Blind date: ‘He said he’d like to marry me’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "Good table manners?Yep. He cleared the air by expressing his nervousness about using chopsticks.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To assuage a hostile or uncomfortable situation."
      ],
      "id": "en-clear_the_air-en-verb-zolJdtoK",
      "links": [
        [
          "assuage",
          "assuage"
        ],
        [
          "hostile",
          "hostile"
        ],
        [
          "uncomfortable",
          "uncomfortable"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To assuage a hostile or uncomfortable situation."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "dust settles"
        },
        {
          "word": "pour oil on troubled waters"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
          "word": "puhdistaa ilmapiiriä"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
          "word": "puhdistaa ilmaa"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
          "word": "crever l’abcès"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
          "word": "mettre les choses au clair"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
          "word": "détendre l’atmosphère"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "oczyszczać atmosferę"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
          "tags": [
            "perfective"
          ],
          "word": "oczyścić atmosferę"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "razrjadítʹ atmosféru",
          "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
          "word": "разряди́ть атмосфе́ру"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
          "word": "apaciguar los ánimos"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
          "word": "templar gaitas"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
          "word": "aclarar las cosas"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
          "word": "rensa luften"
        }
      ]
    }
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  "word": "clear the air"
}
{
  "forms": [
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      "form": "clears the air",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "clearing the air",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
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    },
    {
      "form": "cleared the air",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cleared the air",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
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  ],
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      "expansion": "clear the air (third-person singular simple present clears the air, present participle clearing the air, simple past and past participle cleared the air)",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "dust settles"
    },
    {
      "word": "pour oil on troubled waters"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
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      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "add fuel to the fire"
        }
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        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "Terms with Polish translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations",
        "Terms with Spanish translations",
        "Terms with Swedish translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1976 August 7, Kathy Guilmette, “Devil's Advocate”, in Gay Community News, page 4:",
          "text": "After much bitter in-fighting over the issue of the BF and other issues, I felt it was time to clear the air rather than deal in back-biting.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, David Judson, Are You Attackable?: Embracing God During the Battles In Life:",
          "text": "This relationship began when you went to the Father and cleared the air by asking Him to forgive your past mistakes and sins.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 December 23, “Blind date: ‘He said he’d like to marry me’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "Good table manners?Yep. He cleared the air by expressing his nervousness about using chopsticks.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To assuage a hostile or uncomfortable situation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "assuage",
          "assuage"
        ],
        [
          "hostile",
          "hostile"
        ],
        [
          "uncomfortable",
          "uncomfortable"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To assuage a hostile or uncomfortable situation."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
      "word": "puhdistaa ilmapiiriä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
      "word": "puhdistaa ilmaa"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
      "word": "crever l’abcès"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
      "word": "mettre les choses au clair"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
      "word": "détendre l’atmosphère"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "oczyszczać atmosferę"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
      "tags": [
        "perfective"
      ],
      "word": "oczyścić atmosferę"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "razrjadítʹ atmosféru",
      "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
      "word": "разряди́ть атмосфе́ру"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
      "word": "apaciguar los ánimos"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
      "word": "templar gaitas"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
      "word": "aclarar las cosas"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "to assuage a hostile situation",
      "word": "rensa luften"
    }
  ],
  "word": "clear the air"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-11-21 using wiktextract (95d2be1 and 64224ec). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.