cleave
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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to adhere closely; stick; cling (usually followed byto ).
-
to remain faithful (usually followed byto ).
to cleave to one's principles in spite of persecution.
verb (used with object)
-
to split or divide by or as if by a cutting blow, especially along a natural line of division, as the grain of wood.
-
to make by or as if by cutting.
to cleave a path through the wilderness.
-
to penetrate or pass through (air, water, etc.).
The bow of the boat cleaved the water cleanly.
-
to cut off; sever.
to cleave a branch from a tree.
verb (used without object)
-
to part or split, especially along a natural line of division.
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to penetrate or advance by or as if by cutting (usually followed bythrough ).
verb
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to split or cause to split, esp along a natural weakness
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(tr) to make by or as if by cutting
to cleave a path
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to penetrate or traverse
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cleave1
First recorded before 900; Middle English cleven, Old English cleofian, clifian, cognate with Old High German klebēn, German kleben
Origin of cleave2
First recorded before 950; Middle English cleven, Old English clēofan, cognate with Old High German klioban, German klieben, Old Norse kljūfa; akin to Greek glýphein “to carve,” Latin glūbere “to peel”
Explanation
Cleave, a verb, has two very different meanings. It can describe cutting or splitting something apart with a sharp instrument, or — oddly enough — it can describe sticking to something like glue. To cleave or not to cleave, that is the question. Cleave can refer to being in close contact, to staying really, really close to someone or something: "If you are walking in the pitch-black woods without a flashlight, you want to cleave to the person in front of you." On the other hand, it can mean to split apart with a sharp tool — which is not the action you want to happen while walking in the woods. We've seen that movie.
Vocabulary lists containing cleave
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But once you’ve sorted these details, you and your arborist can make your trees safer, healthier, more lovable, and less likely to cleave.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026
They are free to rein in the state legislature as long as they cleave reasonably close to their state constitutions and do not step outside interpretation into pure improvisation.
From Slate ● Nov. 26, 2025
When it arrives, in simple letters against a black backdrop, it doesn’t so much introduce the film as cleave it in half.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2025
One method uses a second enzyme to cleave cellobiose, but it adds additional cost and complexity to the system.
From Science Daily ● May 7, 2024
He felt his tongue cleave to his mouth, and his heart labouring.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
“Hey There Little Insect,” an impish folk-rocker, begs bugs not to bite, incorporating Bo Diddley’s signature clave rhythm.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
Hints of Cuban clave rhythms, Tin Pan Alley harmonies, Jewish melodies and piano licks swim through its overarching Romantic theme.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2024
But Mark Morris, perched on a stool and clacking out the rhythm with a pair of clave sticks, finds plenty to quarrel with as he oversees this rehearsal of his new work.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 21, 2022
You can see why radio likes it—the song is seriously insinuating, milking a jazzy Afro-Cuban piano clave better than anything this side of ’90s house.
From Slate ● Jan. 26, 2018
His tongue clave to the roof of his mouth.
From A Hero of Romance by Richard Marsh
The club would have been cleaved by a secondary access road if the unit count exceeded 2,300, the Daily Pilot reported.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
A company that has had its growth prospects cleaved off could see its equity valuation plummet, but it could also still be collecting steady checks from existing customers, making it a safer credit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
And now at Royal Portrush in this year's Open Championship, Scheffler has cleaved open an advantage of four shots after 54 holes following a display of understated authority in the hazy Northern Irish sunshine.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2025
But within these macro trends, a divide has cleaved open.
From Slate ● Oct. 11, 2024
All afternoon they cleaved eastward never turning nor slackening pace.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
The cell destroys the disease-causing protein by cleaving it into short peptides.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Theoretically, cleaving the company’s interest in promoting concerts and filling venues from its interest in extracting the maximum in junk fees from powerless customers would do much to foster competition in the ticketing business.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2024
“Society of the Snow” is judicious in what we see of the actual cutting and cleaving.
From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2024
By purifying membrane proteins and enzymatically cleaving them to enrich glycopeptides, the team could identify the sites and structures of glycans -- complex and highly branched sugar chains -- and the amount of glycoproteins.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2023
Arion was playing a dangerous game of tag, charging around the giant while Alyconeus swiped at them with his staff, knocking over walls and cleaving massive chasms in the ice.
From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan
Reported problems include spina bifida, cleft palate, and a range of intellectual, communication, behavior and memory disorders.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 28, 2025
Three-month-old Sana, the youngest baby on the ward, has malnutrition, acute diarrhoea and a cleft lip.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2025
Schimberg, who became friends with Pearson during “Chained for Life,” also drew from his own experience with a cleft palate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 23, 2024
He had the darkest eyelashes I’ve ever seen, short and tidy fingernails, and a cleft chin that could fit a Canadian loonie.
From Slate ● Dec. 17, 2024
“You can see the entrance there. Halfway up, between die weirwoods, that cleft in the rock.”
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
It can also be manufactured synthetically using materials derived from sources such as clove oil or rice.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026
A middle C would smell like a rose; bass notes like clove and vanilla.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Great British Chefs specified that tonka’s “most distinctive feature” is their “enormous potency — heady vanilla flavours, with oily clove aromas, and perfumed magnolia, sandalwood notes.”
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2025
The eels are sedated using clove oil so that Dr Evans and his PhD student group can easily measure them.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2025
Fewer were they but they clove through the Southrons like a fire-bolt in a forest.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Foot and mouth disease is a highly contagious virus that affects cloven hooved animals.
From Reuters ● Jul. 20, 2022
“Luckenbooth” starts in 1910 and creeps across the 20th century on cloven feet.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 21, 2021
In the video, the singer has deer horns and cloven hooves.
From New York Times ● Nov. 12, 2021
“And in their most unmitigable rage into a cloven pine, within which rift imprisoned he didst painfully—”
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 8, 2019
The Ch’i-lin, for instance, out of ancient China, has the body of a deer covered with gleaming scales, a marvelous bushy tail, cloven hooves, and small horns.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
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