definitions

clear one's name

Also, clear oneself. Prove someone (or oneself) innocent. For example, She not only wanted to be acquitted, she wanted to clear her name entirely. This locution employs the verb clear in the sense of “purify” or “wash away a stain.” [Late 1400s]

RELATED CONTENT

What’s The #’s Real Name?A hash has referred to stripes on military jackets since as early as 1910. But, in the 1980s, people started using hash to refer to the # symbol.
READ MORE
Tuesday Is Named For A One-handed God Named TiwYes, it’s true, there’s a wild story behind the god who lends his name to Tuesday. Tiw’s remarkable myth involves women with beards (more on that in a bit). Regardless, the past 1,000 years or so have not been kind to this Northern European divinity. Who is Tuesday named for? To make a long story short, it seems that Tiw used to be a big shot, …
READ MORE

Nearby words

clear cell, clear channel, clear ice, clear layer of epidermis, clear off, clear one's name, clear out, clear the air, clear the decks, clear the table, clear up
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.