Green’s Dictionary of Slang

clear v.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

clear the coop (v.) (also clear the fowl-house)

(US) to rush off, to vacate.

1839		Columbian Register 2 Apr. 4: A tin pedlar has cleared the coop, hook and line, bob and sinker, without being able to square his accounts!
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Jan. 12/4: [Is] this a time for the moulders of colonial and continental opinion to be fighting one another, when the Germans are thundering at our door and the French are clearing the fowl-house at the back?