cleaver

American  

[klee-ver] / ˈkli vər /

noun

• cleavers
  plural

1. a heavy, broad-bladed knife or long-bladed hatchet, especially one used by butchers for cutting meat into joints or pieces.

2. a person or thing that cleaves.

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cleaver British  

/ ˈkliːvə /

noun

1. a heavy knife or long-bladed hatchet, esp one used by butchers

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cleaver Scientific  

/ klē′vər /

1. A bifacial stone tool flaked to produce a straight, sharp, relatively wide edge at one end. Cleavers are early core tools associated primarily with the Acheulian tool culture.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cleavers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cleaver

First recorded in 1325–75, cleaver is from the Middle English word clevere. See cleave ², -er ¹

Explanation

A cleaver is a large knife, used mainly by butchers. The blade of a cleaver is big and square. To cut a steak, you need a good, sharp knife. To cut larger parts of meat, you need something even more powerful: a cleaver (or chopper). Cleavers have fat, square blades and are used for cutting large hunks of meat. It can help you remember the meaning of this word if you know that to cleave is to separate. If you're not a butcher, you probably have no use for a cleaver (unless you're a villain in a horror movie).

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cleaver cleavers

"You can see it as a domestic narrative and then you can see it as a jumbo meat cleaver".

From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2026

I came to love the satisfying thunk of the cleaver hitting the cutting board.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 23, 2025

A Santoku knife is a Japanese chef’s knife with small indentations along the straight blade, in the style of a Chinese slicing cleaver.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 9, 2023

The flesh is soft enough to cube up without resorting to the kind of heavy-duty cleaver you’d take to a leathery kabocha.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 5, 2022

Bunny sidled up to me and whispered, “Did you see the big meat cleaver tattoo on his chest?”

From "Dead End in Norvelt" by Jack Gantos

Then comes the sound, clams tossed in hot pans, cleavers pounding roast pork, a Cantonese rock ballad barely rising above the crowd.

From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026

"Beryl was like a surprise attack, like an ambush," says Cornelius, in a deep baritone voice, over the market's chatter, reggae and thwack of cleavers on chopping boards.

From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2024

Like sitcom employees, the Clyde’s cooks complain about how busy they are, and they look busy, smacking cleavers through heads of lettuce, slapping turkey slices onto waxed paper, and lavishly squeezing sauces all over them.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 23, 2022

The loud thwack! of cleavers cutting cleanly, hitting wooden boards soaked in meat juices punctuates the usually jovial atmosphere.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 23, 2021

A couple of feet across from the women, behind yellow, featherless chickens hanging from hooks, men in bloody aprons raise their cleavers and cut into slabs of beef with the precision of many years’ practice.

From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung