Clearance

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Clearance \Clear"ance\ (kl[=e]r"ans), n.
     1. The act of clearing; as, to make a thorough clearance.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A certificate that a ship or vessel has been cleared at
        the customhouse; permission to sail.


        [1913 Webster]
  
              Every ship was subject to seizure for want of
              stamped clearances.                   --Durke
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Clear or net profit. --Trollope.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. (Mach.) The distance by which one object clears another,
        as the distance between the piston and cylinder head at
        the end of a stroke in a steam engine, or the least
        distance between the point of a cogwheel tooth and the
        bottom of a space between teeth of a wheel with which it
        engages.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Clearance space} (Steam engine), the space inclosed in one
        end of the cylinder, between the valve or valves and the
        piston, at the beginning of a stroke; waste room. It
        includes the space caused by the piston's clearance and
        the space in ports, passageways, etc. Its volume is often
        expressed as a certain proportion of the volume swept by
        the piston in a single stroke.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  clearance
       n 1: the distance by which one thing clears another; the space
            between them
       2: vertical space available to allow easy passage under
          something [syn: {headroom}, {headway}]
       3: permission to proceed; "the plane was given clearance to
          land"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  229 Moby Thesaurus words for "clearance":
     Lebensraum, absolution, acquitment, acquittal, acquittance,
     aesthetic distance, air space, allowance, amortization,
     amortizement, ample scope, approval, authority, authorization,
     back country, bill of health, binder, blank check, caesura,
     carte blanche, cash, cash payment, certification, cleaning out,
     clear space, clearing, compass, compurgation, consent, countenance,
     debt service, deep space, defecation, defrayal, defrayment,
     depletion, deportation, deposit, depths of space, desert,
     destigmatization, destigmatizing, detachment, disbursal, discard,
     discharge, discharging cargo, discontinuity, disculpation,
     disjunction, dismissal, disposal, disposition, distance,
     distance between, distant prospect, divergence, doling out,
     double space, down payment, drainage, draining, earnest,
     earnest money, egress, ejection, elbowroom, elimination, em space,
     empowerment, empty view, emptying, en space, enabling, endorsement,
     enfranchisement, entitlement, eradication, evacuation, excretion,
     exculpation, excuse, exhausting, exhaustion, exile, exoneration,
     expatriation, explanation, expulsion, extent, farness, fiat, field,
     forgiveness, free course, free hand, free play, free scope,
     freeboard, full pratique, full scope, full swing, gap, glade,
     headroom, hiatus, hire purchase, hire purchase plan, hole,
     infinity, installment, installment plan, interest payment, interim,
     intermediate space, interruption, interspace, interstice, interval,
     jump, justification, lacuna, latitude, leap, leave, leeway, length,
     light-years, liquidation, living space, long rope,
     maneuvering space, margin, mileage, monthly payments, never-never,
     no holds barred, off-loading, open country, open space, ostracism,
     outback, outlawing, outlawry, pardon, parsecs, pass, passport,
     paying, paying off, paying out, paying up, payment,
     payment in kind, payoff, permission, perspective, piece, plain,
     play, prairie, pratique, prepayment, protection, purgation, purge,
     purging, quarterly payments, quietus, quittance, range,
     ratification, rationalization, reach, regular payments,
     rehabilitation, reinstatement, release, remission, remittance,
     remoteness, removal, restoration, retirement, riddance, room,
     room to spare, rope, safe-conduct, safeguard, sanction,
     satisfaction, scope, sea room, separation, settlement, severance,
     single space, sinking-fund payment, space, space between, span,
     spare room, spot cash, steppe, stretch, stride, suspension, swing,
     terrain, territory, time interval, tolerance, unloading, venting,
     verdict of acquittal, vindication, visa, voidance, voiding,
     warrant, warranty, way, ways, weekly payments, wide berth,
     wide-open spaces, wilderness, withdrawal
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  CLEARANCE, com. law. The name of a certificate given by the collector of a 
  port, in which is stated the master or commander (naming him) of a ship or 
  vessel named and described, bound for a port, named, and having on board 
  goods described, has entered and cleared his ship or vessel according to 
  law. 
       2. The Act of Congress of 2d March, 1790, section 93, directs, that the 
  master of any vessel bound to a foreign place, shall deliver to the 
  collector of the [dis ot?] from which such vessel shall be about to depart, a
  
  manifest of all the cargo on board, and the value thereof, by him 
  subscribed, and shall swear or affirm to the truth thereof; whereupon the 
  collector shall grant a clearance for such vessel and her cargo; but without 
  specifying the particulars thereof in such clearance, unless required by the 
  master so to do. And if any vessel bound to any foreign place shall depart 
  on her voyage to such foreign place, without delivering such a manifest and 
  obtaining a clearance, the master shall forfeit and pay the sum of five 
  hundred dollars for every such offence. Provided, anything to the contrary 
  notwithstanding, the collectors and other officers of the customs shall pay 
  due regard to the inspection laws of the states in which they respectively 
  act, in such manner, that no vessel having on board goods liable to 
  inspection, shall be cleared out, until the master or other person shall 
  have produced such certificate, that all such goods have been duly 
  inspected, as the laws of the respective states do or may require, to be 
  produced to the collector or other officer of the customs. And provided, 
  that receipts for the payment of all legal fees which shall have accrued on 
  any vessel, shall, before any clearance is granted, be produced to the 
  collector or other officer aforesaid. 
       3. According to Boulay-Paty, Dr. Com. tome 2, p. 19, the clearance is 
  imperiously demanded for the safety of the vessel; for if a vessel should be 
  found without it at  sea, it may be legally taken and brought  into some 
  port for adjudication, on a charge  of piracy. Vide Ship's papers.