cleave
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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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.
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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
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
“By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones cleave to my flesh...”
From "Between Shades of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys
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
Night lay upon my eyelids, About my lips earth clave; With stony heart and forehead I lay within my grave.
From Poems and Ballads of Heinrich Heine by Heinrich Heine
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
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 eight “Mission” films can be cleaved into two groups.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2025
But within these macro trends, a divide has cleaved open.
From Slate ● Oct. 11, 2024
Yao yanked the string of the outboard motor, and its roar split the night while its prow cleaved the water ahead of us and its rear left a trail that glimmered in the flashlights’ beams.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
The cell destroys the disease-causing protein by cleaving it into short peptides.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
The executives also showed no interest in cleaving off the cable channels, unlike Comcast or Warner Bros.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2025
The researchers showed that the compound K11777 prevents host cells from helping the virus out of its shell by cleaving the viral capsid.
From Science Daily ● May 15, 2024
“Society of the Snow” is judicious in what we see of the actual cutting and cleaving.
From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2024
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
After completing extra training she now works with non-profit organisation CleftInject, which help adults with scarring from cleft lip surgery find aesthetic practitioners who understand the condition.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
Dorgan was born with a cleft lip and has faced hearing difficulties, speech difficulties and bullying at school because of her scars.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
It affects one in every 700 babies born in the UK and surgery to close the cleft is typically given when a baby is three to six months old.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
Dr Nicola Stock is an associate professor whose work focuses on the psychological impact of appearance-altering conditions such as a cleft lip.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
“What he said was ‘facial issues,’ and you just assumed that he meant cleft palate.
From "Auggie & Me" by R. J. Palacio
It can also be manufactured synthetically using materials derived from sources such as clove oil or rice.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026
This super fragrant, flavorful dish features slow-cooked, fall-apart-tender buffalo in a curry with notes of clove and nutmeg.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 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
So close was the ookpick, the white owl of the north, that she could see the clove markings on his wings and the dense white feathers that covered his legs and feet.
From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George
Stop using XamfirPM if you experience: headaches, joint pain, flaming discharge, wilted ribs, night quacking, glowing, cloven toes, kaleidoscopic vision, lycanthropy, Bea Arthur mimicking, or zombification.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 23, 2022
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
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
The horn came, but it was cloven in two, as it were by axe or sword.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
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