cleave
Plural: cleaves
Verb
Verb Forms: cleaved, cleft, clove, clave, cloven, cleaving, cleaves
- To split or divide with a sharp instrument, or to adhere firmly.
- separate or cut with a tool, such as a sharp instrument
- "cleave the bone"
- make by cutting into
- "The water is going to cleave a channel into the rock"
- come or be in close contact with; stick or hold together and resist separation
- To split or sever something with, or as if with, a sharp instrument.
- 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.
- To make or accomplish by or as if by cutting.
- (chemistry) To split (a complex molecule) into simpler molecules.
- To split.
- Of a crystal, to split along a natural plane of division.
- Followed by to or unto: to adhere, cling, or stick fast to something.
Noun
- Flat, smooth surface produced by cleavage, or any similar surface produced by similar techniques, as in glass.
- A cut (slash) or a cut location, either naturally or artificially.
Examples
- The strategy was to CLEAVE the word ’SPLIT’ into two new, high-scoring plays.
- The truck cleaved a path through the ice.
- The wings cleaved the foggy air.
Origin / Etymology
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”).
Scrabble Score: 11
cleave: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordcleave: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
cleave: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary