cleave

Meanings

1. To split or sever something with, or as if with, a sharp instrument.
2. To break a single crystal (such as a gemstone or semiconductor wafer) along one of its more symmetrical crystallographic planes (often by impact), forming facets on the resulting pieces.
3. To make or accomplish by or as if by cutting.
4. (chemistry) To split (a complex molecule) into simpler molecules.
5. To split.
6. Of a crystal, to split along a natural plane of division.

1. Flat, smooth surface produced by cleavage, or any similar surface produced by similar techniques, as in glass.
2. A cut (slash) or a cut location, either naturally or artificially.

1. Followed by to or unto: to adhere, cling, or stick fast to something.

1. A surname.
2. A hamlet in Offwell parish, East Devon district, Devon, England, divided into Upper and Lower Cleave (OS grid ref ST2000).

Etymology

From Middle English cleven, from the Old English strong verb clēofan (“to split, to separate”), from Proto-West Germanic *kleuban, from Proto-Germanic *kleubaną, from Proto-Indo-European *glewbʰ- (“to cut, to slice”). Doublet of clive. Cognate with Dutch klieven, dialectal German klieben, Swedish klyva, Norwegian Nynorsk kløyva; also Ancient Greek γλύφω (glúphō, “carve”).

Translations