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.
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to cut off; sever.
to cleave a branch from a tree.
verb (used without object)
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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
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
Viral genome sequences indicate the teen was infected with the type of H5N1 typically found in wild birds and that it had mutated to better cleave to the respiratory tract.
From Salon ● Dec. 6, 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
She felt as if her tongue clave to the roof of her mouth.
From On the Heights A Novel by Auerbach, Berthold
Another two in the fifth end cleaved open the advantage again before the teams traded points in the next two to leave Sweden needing four in the final end to win.
From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2026
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
But within these macro trends, a divide has cleaved open.
From Slate ● Oct. 11, 2024
But I can’t remember anyone mentioning the last one, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in 1999 that killed more than 2,000 people and cleaved the pavement outside of my uncle’s 7-Eleven store in Taichung.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2024
Her knees buckled, and her vision swam, and she wondered for a moment if this was dying, whether she’d been cleaved in two.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
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
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
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
Their eyes were too clear for cleaving, intimate looks.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
The medical term for my ailment is an asymmetrical gluteal cleft, though requests to fix it are far less common than those to eliminate cellulite, flatten the tummy, or augment the breasts.
From Slate ● Feb. 22, 2026
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
Take lamotrigine, for instance: In the early 2000s, animal trials indicated that it could increase conditions like cleft palate, but later studies found no such link, reassuring clinicians.
From Salon ● Sep. 10, 2024
“She did use that word. She said it was like a cleft lip or something.”
From "Auggie & Me" by R. J. Palacio
If you want a more aromatic sauce, you can also add cinnamon or clove.
From Salon ● Nov. 26, 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
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
Using techniques such as gas chromatography-olfactometry and aroma extract dilution analysis, the team identified the odorant 5-vinylguaiacol as the source of the off-flavor in an orange juice with a pronounced clove odor.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 6, 2024
So King Théoden rode from Helm’s Gate and clove his path to the great Dike.
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
The name of a police officer who supposedly investigated the cloven footprints in the snow was made up.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 16, 2021
The plant’s long, slender leaves are cloven at the top and tapered at the tip, like an exaggerated cartoon heart.
From New York Times ● Nov. 11, 2019
“Chilling Adventures” hurls everything it can into its narrative cauldron, including a cave like a Hellmouth and a prep school like a satanic Hogwarts, replete with cloven hooves and pentagrams.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 26, 2018
“Pig tracks?” he asks dubiously as he looks at the cloven prints.
From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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.
