cleave
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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to adhere closely; stick; cling (usually followed byto ).
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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.
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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:
When the wind blows hard, and their branches and boughs thrash and creak, I am convinced they will topple over and cleave my home in twain.
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
The films of the 1960s and ’70s that made Redford an icon mostly cleave into two categories: scamps and truth-seekers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2025
The Scottish Premiership leaders enjoyed almost 70% possession but struggled to cleave out clear chances against a Croatian side hampered by injuries.
From BBC ● Dec. 10, 2024
She felt the dull resistance of its physical presence, felt her hand cleave easily through it.
From "Shadowshaper" by Daniel José Older
“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
The four pieces clave to four stones, which are for witness of the apostolic triumph to this day.
From The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of ?lfric, in the Original Anglo-Saxon, with an English Version. Volume I. by Abbot of Eynsham Aelfric
That’s why, if you don’t want your house cleaved in twain, diagnosing your trees is best left to a certified arborist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 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
The waterway was cleaved across the most narrow section of the Panamanian isthmus in the late 1800s and early 1900s, by French and then U.S. engineers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2025
But within these macro trends, a divide has cleaved open.
From Slate ● Oct. 11, 2024
Heat cleaved to things like a low fever.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
The cell destroys the disease-causing protein by cleaving it into short peptides.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Tribune News Service critic Katie Walsh described the film as “a social satire that wields a scalpel, not a cleaving broadsword, as it surgically slices through the many hypocrisies of the culture industry at large.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2024
The culprit of the cleaving was a small stream of water that had seeped into the rock and weakened it.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 1, 2024
“Society of the Snow” is judicious in what we see of the actual cutting and cleaving.
From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2024
Wriggling around he cried, “Stupefy!” and a red bolt of light shot from his own wand, cleaving a gap between the four pursuing Death Eaters as they scattered to avoid it.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
Evans was discharged from cleft services when she was 17.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
It comes as one psychology academic warned people with a cleft lip were being "deliberately targeted" by the aesthetics industry and "left vulnerable to potential harm and exploitation".
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
Aesthetics treatment for people with scars involves using filler to reduce their appearance, restore symmetry, and add volume after cleft lip surgery.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
She was born with a cleft lip and underwent two surgeries, one as a baby to close her cleft, and one when she was 10 to smooth out her lips.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
They came to a cleft between two dark crags, and passing through found themselves on the very edge of the last fence of Mordor.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
It can also be manufactured synthetically using materials derived from sources such as clove oil or rice.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026
An illustration shows middle C having the scent of a rose; the C two octaves higher, jasmine; in the rumbly bass, clove and vanilla.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
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
Spices vary greatly and the last thing you want is a mole that is overpowered with cinnamon, allspice, clove, etc.
From Salon ● Jan. 4, 2025
The smell of searing clove and nutmeg filled the room.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Foot and mouth disease is a highly contagious virus that affects cloven hooved animals.
From Reuters ● Jul. 20, 2022
The name of a police officer who supposedly investigated the cloven footprints in the snow was made up.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 16, 2021
In his short story “Ordeal by Golf,” the narrator declares, “In no other walk of life does the cloven hoof so quickly display itself.”
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 3, 2019
“Its cats. Its pale sky. The empty sky of morning, drained and pure. Its deep, cloven streets. Its narrow courts, the faint, rotten odor within, orange peels lying in the corners.”
From New York Times ● Jun. 5, 2018
Here and there old trees had been cut or broken down, and large rocks cloven or heaved aside to make a way.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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