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
I thought that if we could cleave to Suzanne’s narrative drive, we could give the audience great pleasure.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 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
Sometimes a writer should cleave an intimidating block of print with a paragraph break just to give the reader’s eyes a place to alight and rest.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
“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
Still my tongue clave to the roof of my mouth and I could not speak.
From The Deemster by Sir Hall Caine
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 keen edge cleaved through the tough skin.
From "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls
The cell destroys the disease-causing protein by cleaving it into short peptides.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
RNA silencing, also known as RNA interference, is a way that plants and invertebrate animals can protect themselves from viruses by cleaving viral RNA to repress viral replication.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 19, 2024
“Society of the Snow” is judicious in what we see of the actual cutting and cleaving.
From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2024
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
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
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
She looked at the partygoers moving with her up the slippery stairs and through the cleft between the dragon’s tail and mouth.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
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
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
Made with both graphite and acrylic, the busy scenes achieve an entrancing variety of tones: acres of newspaper gray, crinkling across the drawings’ shallow perspective, are periodically cloven by a sudden swath of velvety black.
From New York Times ● Sep. 9, 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
“I expected cloven hoofs,” said one former NSC staffer.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 4, 2019
The travellers came into a long valley; narrow, deeply cloven, dark and silent.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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