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)
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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.
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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:
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
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
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
Autumn is jumping through like it’s an obstacle course, occasionally using her sword to cleave a new way for herself.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
“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
I was seized with a great throb of impatience, and clave the top coal of the small fire viciously.
From A Witch of the Hills, v. 2-2 by Warden, Florence
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
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
Heat cleaved to things like a low fever.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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
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
Wriggling around he cried, “Stupefy!” and a red bolt of light shot from his own wand, cleaving a gap between the four pursuing Death Eaters as they scattered to avoid it.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
Waiting lists for gynae mesh, children's squints, children's feeding tubes and cleft lip will also be tackled.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 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
“It certainly happened to me,” said Schimberg, who has a cleft palate.
From Salon ● Sep. 21, 2024
The cleft in the rock is smaller than I remember it, the slope at its far end shallower.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
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
From there, I started experimenting: berries, stone fruit, apple slices blanketed in cinnamon and clove.
From Salon ● May 6, 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
Fewer were they but they clove through the Southrons like a fire-bolt in a forest.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Foot and mouth disease is a highly contagious virus that affects cloven hooved animals.
From Reuters ● Jul. 20, 2022
“And in their most unmitigable rage into a cloven pine, within which rift imprisoned he didst painfully—”
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 8, 2019
“I expected cloven hoofs,” said one former NSC staffer.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 4, 2019
“Its cats. Its pale sky. The empty sky of morning, drained and pure. Its deep, cloven streets. Its narrow courts, the faint, rotten odor within, orange peels lying in the corners.”
From New York Times ● Jun. 5, 2018
All day, Torak had followed its trail of bitten-off twigs and cloven prints: trying to feel what it was feeling; guessing where it would go next.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
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.
