Sample Sentences for
cleave
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

cleave as in:  cleave through

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    It has the ability to cleave carbon-carbon bonds.
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    The water is going to cleave a channel into the rock
    cleave = cut
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    But she couldn't cleave him from alcoholism or his murderous obsession.  (source)
    cleave = split
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Show 10 more with 10 word variations
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    Jesus was this place, the Rock cleft for me.†  (source)
    "Editor's Notes"
    Cleft is the past tense of cleave like left is past tense of leave.

    Today, cleft is most seen in the form cleft palate or cleft lip to refer to medical conditions at birth.
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    It was the witch who put Ariel in the cloven pine, wasn't it?  (source)
    cloven = split
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    His neck and wrists were as thick as a wrestler's and his close-cropped hair revealed a scar above the left ear, which was presumably the result of a glancing blow that had hoped to cleave his skull.  (source)
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    And herself, swimming in easy practised strokes after him cleaving her way through the water but knowing, only too surely, that she wouldn't be in time…  (source)
    cleaving = cutting
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    Pushing myself, continually out of breath, I scurried up and to the left, across small snowfields linked by ice-choked clefts and short rock steps.  (source)
    clefts = splits or cracks
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    The keen edge cleaved through the tough skin.  (source)
    cleaved = cut through
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    —a blow from a spade cleaves through his face.  (source)
    cleaves = splits or cuts through
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    If, for an extreme example, cleft palates showed up in every litter—meaning pups that had to be put down—you knew that the sire carried a propensity toward cleft palate.  (source)
    cleft palate = an opening or split in the roof of the mouth (a medical condition at birth)
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    The sword cleaveth the helmet; The strong armour is pierced by the lance; Fire devoureth the dwelling of princes, Engines break down the fences of the battle.†  (source)
    standard suffix: Today, the suffix "-th" is replaced by "-s", so that where they said "She cleaveth" in older English, today we say "She cleaves."
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    Sanaubar had taken one glance at the baby in Ali's arms, seen the cleft lip, and barked a bitter laughter.  (source)
    cleft lip = an opening or split in the upper lip (a medical condition at birth)
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cleave as in:  cleave to

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The New Testament quotes the Old Testament twice in saying, "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to this wife, and they become one flesh."
cleaves = holds firmly
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    She was taught that she must cleave to God.
    cleave = hold firmly
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    Beware, Goody Proctor—cleave to no faith when faith brings blood.  (source)
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    He felt his tongue cleave to his mouth, and his heart labouring.  (source)
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Show 10 more with 3 word variations
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    If there are more, the Bold Wind will cleave to the Seaswift to protect her while the rest of the fleet does battle.  (source)
    cleave = hold (stay with)
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    His dense, smoldering eyes traveled from face to face, brushed David's who jerked his head away in panic, traveled on and returned, cleaving there.  (source)
    cleaving = holding firmly
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    "One time I asked her to have a chew and she said no thanks, that—chewing gum cleaved to her palate and rendered her speechless," said Jem carefully.  (source)
    cleaved = stuck (held tightly)
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    Shadowhunters cleave to no single religion, and in turn all religions assist us in our battle.  (source)
    cleave = hold firmly
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    The girl had retreated to the image of her parent and there found protection—like the unsuccessful husband whose dream of mother love preserved him from the state of cleaving to a wife.  (source)
    cleaving = holding firmly
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    He refused to wear soft hats; cleaved to a hard derby, as a symbol of virility and prosperity; and sometimes he forgot to take it off in the house.  (source)
    cleaved = stuck (held tightly)
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    We must cleave to them like mire on a Pig!  (source)
    cleave = hold firmly
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    The church was their society and their standard; they went to Sunday service, Sunday School, Christian Endeavor, missionary lectures, church suppers, precisely as they had at home; they agreed that ambassadors and flippant newspapermen and infidel scientists of the bureaus were equally wicked and to be avoided; and by cleaving to Tincomb Church they kept their ideals from all contamination.  (source)
    cleaving = holding firmly
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    In the United States there is even a pathos of inverted emphasis: the goal is not to grow old, but to remain young; not to mature away from Mother, but to cleave to her.  (source)
    cleave = hold firmly
  • •
    But she found a Washington which did not cleave to Main Street.  (source)
    cleave = hold (to the values of)
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meaning too rare to warrant focus

Show 3 with this contextual meaning
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    I saw a clove of garlic inside, and I added it to my inventory.  (source)
    clove = lobe
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    Clove is scrambling backward on all fours, like a frantic insect, too shocked to even call for Cato.  (source)
    Clove = a name
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    Roy's fingers trembled as he undid the precisely tied clove-hitch knots.  (source)
    clove = a type of knot
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Show 10 more with 3 word variations
  • •
    "Oh, don't," she wailed every time Fred asked Harry loudly who he was planning to attack next, or when George pretended to ward Harry off with a large clove of garlic when they met.  (source)
    clove = a dried flower bud or section of a garlic plant
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    If anyone knew about this, we could be reported to the Clave.  (source)
    Clave = a political body in this novel
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    I swear there are not two more ignorant, cloven-footed blockheads in the land.  (source)
    cloven = a hoof split in 2 parts
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    It's more like root beer with a hint of clove.†  (source)
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    It seems the time has come to notify the Clave.  (source)
    Clave = a political body in this novel
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    So I cut each of the two birds into eight pieces and put them in a bath of water, kosher salt, sugar, a bay leaf, a splash of soy sauce, a garlic clove, and a small handful of peppercorns and coriander seeds.†  (source)
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    The Clave hands down curses on occasion as punishment for breaking the Law.  (source)
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    When Miss Dickinson says, "Hope is the thing with feathers," I always think of something round—a ball from one of the games I will never play—stuck all around like a clove-orange sachet with red feathers.†  (source)
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    I will send messages to the Clave and also to the Silent Brothers.  (source)
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    There hammer on the anvil smote, There chisel clove, and graver wrote; There forged was blade, and bound was hilt; The delver mined, the mason built.†  (source)
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