cleave

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kliːv/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kliv/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːv

From Middle English cleven, from the Old English strong verb clēofan (“to split, to separate”), from Proto-West Germanic *kleuban, from Proto-Germanic *kleubaną, from Proto-Indo-European *glewbʰ- (“to cut, to slice”).

Doublet of clive. Cognate with Dutch klieven, dialectal German klieben, Swedish klyva, Norwegian Nynorsk kløyva; also Ancient Greek γλύφω (glúphō, “carve”).

cleave (third-person singular simple present cleaves, present participle cleaving, simple past cleft or clove or (UK) cleaved or (archaic) clave, past participle cleft or cloven or (UK) cleaved)

1. (transitive) To split or sever something with, or as if with, a sharp instrument.

   The wings cleaved the foggy air.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:

     O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 78:15:

     Hee claue the rockes in the wildernes: and gaue them drinke as out of the great depthes.

2. (transitive, mineralogy) To break a single crystal (such as a gemstone or semiconductor wafer) along one of its more symmetrical crystallographic planes (often by impact), forming facets on the resulting pieces.
3. (transitive) To make or accomplish by or as if by cutting.

   The truck cleaved a path through the ice.

4. (transitive) (chemistry) To split (a complex molecule) into simpler molecules.
5. (intransitive) To split.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 16:31:

     And it came to passe as he had made an ende of speaking all these words, that the ground claue asunder that was vnder them:

6. (intransitive, mineralogy) Of a crystal, to split along a natural plane of division.

cleave (plural cleaves)

1. (technology) Flat, smooth surface produced by cleavage, or any similar surface produced by similar techniques, as in glass.

• cleaver

• cleavage
• cleft

From Middle English cleven, a conflation of two verbs: Old English clifian (from Proto-West Germanic *klibēn, from Proto-Germanic *klibāną) and Old English clīfan (from Proto-West Germanic *klīban, from Proto-Germanic *klībaną), both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gleybʰ- (“to stick”). Cognate with Dutch kleven, German kleben (“to stick”).

cleave (third-person singular simple present cleaves, present participle cleaving, simple past and past participle cleaved)

1. (intransitive, rare) Followed by to or unto: to adhere, cling, or stick fast to something.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ruth 1:14:

     And they lift vp their voyce, and wept againe: and Orpah kissed her mother in law, but Ruth claue vnto her.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Kings 3:3:

     Neuerthelesse, hee cleaued vnto the sinnes of Ieroboam the sonne of Nebat, which made Israel to sinne; he departed not therefrom.

   • a. 1638 (date written), Quintus Horatius Flaccus [i.e., Horace], translated by Ben Jonson, Q. Horatius Flaccus: His Art of Poetry. […], London: […] J[ohn] Okes, for John Benson […], published 1640, →OCLC, page 2, lines 14–16:

     Yet not as therefore cruell things ſhould cleave / To gentle; not that vve ſhould Serpents ſee / VVith Doves; or Lambs vvith Tigres coupled be.

   • 1881, Walter Besant, James Rice, “How Will Would Not Be Crossed”, in The Chaplain of the Fleet […], volume III, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, part II (The Queen of the Wells), pages 163–164:

     He was in such a rage that his tongue clave to the roof of his mouth. He could not even swear. He could only splutter.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     "I only know that I love thee as I never loved before, and that I will cleave to thee to the end."

   • 2019 December 7, St. Albertus Magnus, On Cleaving to God, Dalcassian Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 5:

     In fact everyone is obligated, to this loving cleaving to God as necessary for salvation, in the form of observing the commandments and conforming to the divine will, […]

• See also Thesaurus:adhere

• “cleave”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “cleave”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.