All 5 Uses of

cleave

in

Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky

And Sonia comes to us now, mostly after dark; she comforts Katerina Ivanovna and gives her all she can....She has a room at the Kapernaumovs' the tailors, she lodges with them; Kapernaumov is a lame man with a cleft palate and all of his numerous family have cleft palates too.†
Chpt 1.2

cleft palate = an opening or split in the roof of the mouth (a medical condition at birth)

And his wife, too, has a cleft palate.†
Chpt 1.2

cleft palate = an opening or split in the roof of the mouth (a medical condition at birth)

Uses with a meaning too rare to warrant foucs:

She was considerably older than I, and besides, she always kept a clove or something in her mouth.†
Chpt 6.4 *

clove = a dried flower bud or section of a garlic plant

Definitions:

(1) (cleave as in: cleave through)
to split or cut through something

Ironically, this word can mean to split in two or to hold together.

Note that you may see cleaved, cleft, clove, or cloven as the past tense of this sense of cleave.
(2) (cleave as in: cleave to)
to hold firmly to something -- such as an object, a person or idea

Ironically, this word can mean to split in two or to hold together.

Note that you may see cleaved, clove, or clave as the past tense of this sense of cleave.
(3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
a proper noun or other word too rare to warrant focus