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:
Especially rewarding are the book’s first two “acts,” which cleave to Apollonius’ epic to sketch a sort of Bildungsroman of the young Medea and render her own perspective on the events that follow.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 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
Ever since the government cleared the merger of concert promoter Live Nation and ticketseller Ticketmaster in 2010, there have been demands from consumer advocates to cleave them.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2024
Later Charlie taught Joe how to decipher the subtle clues of shape, texture, and color that would enable him to cleave the wood into well-formed shakes, to see hidden points of weakness or resilience.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Its origins, he argues, are in the clave, the beat kept by wooden sticks, originally fashioned from ship’s pegs, that created an “endless, unbroken two bar sway.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 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
Even after this extraordinary use of the jawbone it was in such good condition that, a hollow place being "clave" in it, a fount of water gushed forth for refreshing this remarkable warrior.
From English Secularism A Confession Of Belief by George Jacob Holyoake
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
An agreement has defied numerous, U.N.-facilitated rounds of talks since 1974 when the island was cleaved along ethnic lines following a Turkish invasion preceded by a coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.
From Seattle Times ● May 15, 2024
I didn’t realize how much Cara had already cleaved to the idea of being an Allegiant, loyal to the faction system, loyal to our founders.
From "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth
The cell destroys the disease-causing protein by cleaving it into short peptides.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
"In follow-up experiments, we proved our hypothesis that the compound prevents cathepsin L from cleaving and opening up the viral capsid," says Mara Klöhn.
From Science Daily ● May 15, 2024
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
“Society of the Snow” is judicious in what we see of the actual cutting and cleaving.
From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2024
Sigurd swung his axe at the water column, cleaving a piece off, and he grabbed at Anya as she scrambled by.
From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
Two young women who have turned to dermal fillers after having cleft lip surgery say it has given them confidence after they were both left with scarring.
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
Evans was discharged from cleft services when she was 17.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
"I think it's important to inform your cleft team because it may impact any further treatment that you might need," he said.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
Coming to the opening they found that they had made their way down through a cleft in a high steep bank, almost a cliff.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" 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
A middle C would smell like a rose; bass notes like 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
Adding cinnamon, clove, cardamom, nutmeg and other warming spices gives the dish a depth of flavor.
From Salon ● Nov. 25, 2024
An odor like crystallized ginger, or sweet iced tea with a dark clove floating in it.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
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
“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
In Zooey, be assured early, we are dealing with the complex, the overlapping, the cloven, and at least two dossier-like paragraphs ought to be got in right here.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
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