cleave
1 Americanverb (used without object)
-
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.
-
to penetrate or advance by or as if by cutting (usually followed bythrough ).
verb
-
to split or cause to split, esp along a natural weakness
-
(tr) to make by or as if by cutting
to cleave a path
-
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
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Two-Faced Words: Contronyms
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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
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
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
“And her just two days past vowin’ to cleave only unto Rucker!
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
“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 anxiety of that dreadful moment had parched his throat, and his tongue clave to the roof of his mouth.
From Triumphs of Invention and Discovery in Art and Science by J. Hamilton Fyfe
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
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
The great hemlock bough lay across Gray’s chest, cleaved from the tree.
From "Pax" by Sara Pennypacker
The executives also showed no interest in cleaving off the cable channels, unlike Comcast or Warner Bros.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2025
“Society of the Snow” is judicious in what we see of the actual cutting and cleaving.
From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2024
Using a cleaving enzyme derived from a family of viruses, the researchers developed a synthetic enzyme that could be directed to cut specific amino acids from Vg1 in the zebrafish embryo.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 9, 2023
First, his job is to act as an impartial observer, obeying the rules of forensic archaeology and cleaving to hard data.
From National Geographic ● Oct. 23, 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
Her daughter was born early with a cleft palate, facial symptoms of sodium valproate syndrome as well as ADHD.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
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
The model will allow them to rapidly screen thousands of dietary and environmental factors in a laboratory dish before testing the impact of specific factors on cleft susceptibility in mouse models.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 22, 2024
At a long cleft protected from the wind, Taran signaled a halt.
From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander
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
From there, I started experimenting: berries, stone fruit, apple slices blanketed in cinnamon and clove.
From Salon ● May 6, 2025
One woman arrived with a clove of garlic and placed it down on the table before she started talking.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 10, 2024
They had come to the end of a long cutting, deep, and sheer-sided in the middle, by which the road clove its way through a stony ridge.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
Foot and mouth disease is a highly contagious virus that affects cloven hooved animals.
From Reuters ● Jul. 20, 2022
In the video, the singer has deer horns and cloven hooves.
From New York Times ● Nov. 12, 2021
Huge cloven footprints were found in the snow.
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
In each hand he held up one half of a great horn cloven through the middle: a wild-ox horn bound with silver.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
