cleave
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: chemistry
engineering
geography
geology
mineralogy
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
technology
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”).
Inflected forms:
form: cleaves
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: cleaving
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: cleft
pos: verb
tags: past
form: clove
pos: verb
tags: past
form: cleaved
pos: verb
tags: UK
past
form: clave
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
form: cleft
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: clove
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: cleaved
pos: verb
tags: UK
participle
past
form: clave
pos: verb
tags: archaic
participle
past
form: cloven
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: cleaves
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To split or sever something with, or as if with, a sharp instrument.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The wings clove the foggy air.
O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
Hee claue the rockes in the wildernes: and gaue them drinke as out of the great depthes.
gloss: 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.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To make or accomplish by or as if by cutting.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The truck clove a path through the ice.
gloss: (chemistry) To split (a complex molecule) into simpler molecules.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To split.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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:
gloss: Of a crystal, to split along a natural plane of division.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: Flat, smooth surface produced by cleavage, or any similar surface produced by similar techniques, as in glass.
pos: noun
gloss: A cut (slash) or a cut location, either naturally or artificially.
pos: noun
examples: There are very striking scenes on some of the lesser streams at this portion of their course. The deep gorge of the Lyd is famous. In the "cleaves," or cleft rocky valleys of Lustleigh and of the Tavy, many a long summer day may be spent with delight; and the Erme, which descends by Ivy Bridge, is not less worthy of a pilgrimage. As the rivers leave the moorland they are crossed by venerable and picturesque bridges which, like that of Harford in our illustration, sometimes afford an admirable framework for the distant landscape.
The valley by which the Taw leaves the Moor forms one of the cleaves that add so greatly to the attractions of the place, and this bears the same name as the parish.
Early the next morning, when there was a tender pink light upon all the moor, and the gentle wind was filled with the purest odours found upon earth, the smell of firs and peat and dewy heather, and the first sunbeams seemed to be creeping down the side of the cleave to drink of the river, poor ill-used John Petherick was evicted at last from Wheal Dream and went into the immortality which he could not think about.
Related words: cleavage
cleft
Derived words: autocleave
cleavability
cleavable
cleave gag
miscleave
photocleave
recleave
tocleave
uncleave
cleaver
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: разцепвам
roman: razcepvam
lang: Finnish
word: lohkaista
lang: French
word: cliver
lang: French
word: tailler
lang: Italian
word: tagliare
lang: Occitan
word: talhar
lang: Occitan
word: clivar
lang: Spanish
word: tallar
lang: Bulgarian
word: разцепвам
roman: razcepvam
lang: Finnish
word: lohkaista
lang: French
word: cliver
lang: Italian
word: scindere
lang: Occitan
word: clivar
lang: Spanish
word: escindir
lang: Swedish
word: klyva