clear cut

• clear-cut
• clearcut

• Audio (General Australian):

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clear cut (comparative more clear cut or clearer cut, superlative most clear cut or clearest cut)

1. (idiomatic) Straightforward, obvious, simple, or basic.

   It looks like a simple enough problem, but the answer might not be as clear cut as you suppose.

2. (forestry) Having had all trees cut.

(clear, obvious):

• cut and dried
• open-and-shut
• res ipsa loquitur

clear cut (third-person singular simple present clear cuts, present participle clear cutting, simple past and past participle clear cut)

1. (transitive) To remove all trees or vegetation from an area.

• “clear-cut”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• clear cut, clearcut at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.