cleave

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Till Tancred's heart it cleave, and shed his blood,

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Definitions (24)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (8)

  1. transitive verb To split with or as if with a sharp instrument. See Synonyms at tear1.
  2. transitive verb To make or accomplish by or as if by cutting: cleave a path through the ice.
  3. transitive verb To pierce or penetrate: The wings cleaved the foggy air.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (10)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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This word has been looked up 248 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

crevice ·  ravine ·  chasm ·  clove ·  cleft ·  crag ·  mace ·  ledge ·  ridge ·  glen ·  rift ·  crater

Used in the same contextWord Family

cleave:   cleft ·  clove ·  cleaved
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English cleven, from Old English clēofan; see gleubh- in Indo-European roots.
  2. Middle English cleven, from Old English cleofian.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English cleven, clevien, cleovien, clivien, cliven (weak verb, preterit clevede, past participle cleved), from Anglo-Saxon cleofian, clifian (weak verb, preterit clifode, past participle clifod) = Old Saxon klibhon = Middle Dutch, Dutch kleven = Middle Low German kleven, Low German kliven=Old High German chlebēn, Middle High German G. kleben (= Swedish reflexive klibba) = Danish klæbe (not in Gothic (Moesogothic)), cleave, stick, adhere; a secondary verb, with orig. strong verb Anglo-Saxon *clīfan, etc.: see clive. Cf. climb.
  2. from Middle English cleven, cleoven (properly strong verb, preterit claf. clæf, clef, cleef, plural cloven, past participle cloven, clove; also, as transitive, weak, preterit cleved, past participle cleft), from Anglo-Saxon cleófan (strong verb, preterit cleáf, plural clufon, past participle clofen) = Old Saxon kliobhan = Dutch kloven = Middle Low German kloven, kliven, Low German klöben = Old High German chlioban, Middle High German G. klieben = Icelandic kljūfa = Swedish klyfva = Danish klöve (not in Gothic (Moesogothic)), split, divide, prob. = Latin glubere, peel, = Greek γλύφειν, hollow out, engrave (see glyph, glyptic). Not related to cleave.
  3. Irish cliabh (pron. klē′a̤v), Old Irish cliab, Gaelic cliabh, a basket; akin to Irish Gaelic cliath, a hurdle.
 

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/kliv/
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