cleave
/ˈkliːv/ verb C2- To split or sever something with, or as if with, a sharp instrument. · The wings clove the foggy air.
- 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.
- To make or accomplish by or as if by cutting. · The truck clove a path through the ice.
- (chemistry) To split (a complex molecule) into simpler molecules.
- To split.
- Of a crystal, to split along a natural plane of division.
He/she/it cleaves · Past cleft · Past participle cleft · -ing form cleaving
Verb forms
- Base form
- cleave
- He/she/it
- cleaves
- Past
- cleft
- Past participle
- cleft
- -ing form
- cleaving
An irregular verb: learn its past and past participle by heart.
From the library
These words rang in Dantès’ ears, even beneath the waves; he hastened to cleave his way through them to see if he had not lost his strength.
An hour passed, during which Dantès, excited by the feeling of freedom, continued to cleave the waves.
She was coming out of Marseilles harbor, and was standing out to sea rapidly, her sharp prow cleaving through the waves.
They sailed; Edmond was again cleaving the azure sea which had been the first horizon of his youth, and which he had so often dreamed of in prison.
Other matches
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