Cleave
Contents
English
Pronunciation
- IPA: /kliːv/
- Rhymes: -iːv
Verb
Cleave (third-person singular simple present cleaves, present participle cleaving, simple past cleft, clove, or in UK: cleaved, or obsolete clave, past participle cleft, cloven, or in UK: cleaved)
- (transitive) To split or sever something or as if with a sharp instrument.
- The wings cleaved the foggy air.
- (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.
- (transitive) To make or accomplish by or as if by cutting.
- The truck cleaved a path through the ice.
- (transitive, chemistry) To split (a complex molecule) into simpler molecules.
- (intransitive) To split.
- (intransitive, mineralogy) Of a crystal, to split along a natural plane of division.
Noun
Cleave (plural Cleaves)- (technology) Flat, smooth surface produced by cleavage, or any similar surface produced by similar techniques, as in glass.
Related terms
Verb
Cleave (third-person singular simple present Cleaves, present participle cleaving, simple past and past participle cleaved)
- (intransitive) To cling, adhere or stick fast to something; used with to or unto.
- (intransitive) To be faithful.
Thesaurus
accelerate, activate, adhere, adhere to, agglomerate, amputate, associate, atomize, ax, bifurcate, bisect, bite, bombard, branch, breach, break, break to pieces, broach, bunch, butcher, by two, carve, check, chink, chop, clasp, cleave to, clench, clinch, cling, cling to, clip, clot, cluster, clutch, coagulate, cohere, combine, congeal, conglomerate, conjoin, crack, crevasse, cross-bombard, cut, cut apart, cut away, cut in two, cut off, cut open, demolish, dichotomize, dimidiate, disassemble, disintegrate, dismantle, dispart, dissect, dissever, ditch, divaricate, divide, divorce, embrace, excise, fission, fissure, fly open, fork, fracture, fragment, freeze to, furrow, gap, gash, grapple, grasp, grip, gripe, groove, grow together, hack, halve, hang on, hang on to, hang together, hew, hold, hold fast, hold on, hold on to, hold tight, hold together, hug, in half, incise, jigsaw, join, keep hold of, lance, lay open, link, make mincemeat of, mass, never let go, nip, nucleize, ope, open, open up, pare, part, persist, pick to pieces, prune, pull in pieces, pull to pieces, pulverize, ramify, reduce to rubble, rend, rent, rift, rip, rive, rupture, saw, scissor, separate, set, sever, shatter, slash, slice, slit, slot, smash, smash the atom, snip, solidify, split, split in two, spread, spread out, spring open, stay, stay put, stick, stick to, stick together, subdivide, sunder, swing open, take apart, take hold of, tap, tear, tear apart, tear open, tear to pieces, tear to shreds, tear to tatters, throw open, total, transect, trench, unbuild, undo, unite, unmake, whittle, wrack up, wreck
