All 11 Uses of
cleave
in
The Count of Monte Cristo
- Meanwhile, by a cleft between two walls of rock, following a path worn by a torrent, and which, in all human probability, human foot had never before trod, Dantes approached the spot where he supposed the grottos must have existed.†
Chpt 23-24 *cleft = a split or crack in something"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.
- I shot two with my double-barrelled gun, and two more with my pistols, but I was then disarmed, and two were still left; one seized me by the hair (that is why I now wear it so short, for no one knows what may happen), the other swung a yataghan, and I already felt the cold steel on my neck, when this gentleman whom you see here charged them, shot the one who held me by the hair, and cleft the skull of the other with his sabre.†
Chpt 39-40
- , who feared the dagger at his breast, and whose head was cleft with a hatchet.†
Chpt 81-82
- These words rang in Dantes' ears, even beneath the waves; he hastened to cleave his way through them to see if he had not lost his strength.†
Chpt 22-23
- An hour passed, during which Dantes, excited by the feeling of freedom, continued to cleave the waves.†
Chpt 22-23
- She was coming out of Marseilles harbor, and was standing out to sea rapidly, her sharp prow cleaving through the waves.†
Chpt 22-23
- 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.†
Chpt 22-23
- The sailors had again hoisted sail, and the vessel was once more cleaving the waves.†
Chpt 31-32
- I had often seen one placed at the end of a road on a hillock, and in the light of the sun its black arms, bending in every direction, always reminded me of the claws of an immense beetle, and I assure you it was never without emotion that I gazed on it, for I could not help thinking how wonderful it was that these various signs should be made to cleave the air with such precision as to convey to the distance of three hundred leagues the ideas and wishes of a man sitting at a table at one end of the line to another man similarly placed at the opposite extremity, and all this effected by a simple act of volition on the part of the sender of the message.†
Chpt 59-60
- And then her thoughts, cleaving through space like a bird in the air, rested on Cavalcanti.†
Chpt 99-100
Uses with a meaning too rare to warrant foucs:
- He struggled against his thirst till his tongue clave to the roof of his mouth; then, no longer able to resist, he called out.†
Chpt 115-116 *
Definitions:
-
(1)
(cleave as in: cleave through) to split or cut through somethingIronically, 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 ideaIronically, 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) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
a proper noun or other word too rare to warrant focus