All 36 Uses

cleave
in
The Two Towers
(Auto-generated)

Since Gandalf's head is now sacred, let us find one that it is right to cleave!
Chpt 3.5 *

cleave = split (with violent force)
But Aragorn saw that he was pierced with many black-feathered arrows; his sword was still in his hand, but it was broken near the hilt; his horn cloven in two was at his side.†
Chpt 3.1
Quickly they searched the bodies of the Orcs, gathering their swords and cloven helms and shields into a heap.†
Chpt 3.1
His helm they set beside him, and across his lap they laid the cloven horn and the hilts and shards of his sword; beneath his feet they put the swords of his enemies.†
Chpt 3.1
His cloven shield, his broken sword, they to the water brought.†
Chpt 3.1
The trail led them north along the top of the escarpment, and at length they came to a deep cleft carved in the rock by a stream that splashed noisily down.†
Chpt 3.2

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.
Out of the forest the Entwash flowed to meet them, its stream now swift and narrow, and its banks deep-cloven.†
Chpt 3.2
Beside it was a great pile of helms and mail, cloven shields, and broken swords, bows and darts and other gear of war.†
Chpt 3.2
'I don't know quite where we are,' said Merry; 'but that peak is probably Methedras, and as far as I can remember the ring of Isengard lies in a fork or deep cleft at the end of the mountains.†
Chpt 3.4

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.
At last they stood upon the summit, and looked down into a dark pit: the great cleft at the end of the mountains: Nan Curunar, the Valley of Saruman.†
Chpt 3.4
There was a flash as if lightning had cloven the roof.†
Chpt 3.6
He came, a weary man with dinted helm and cloven shield.†
Chpt 3.7
Here and there were clefts in the stone through which men could shoot.†
Chpt 3.7
Maybe we shall cleave a road, or make such an end as will be worth a song-if any be left to sing of us hereafter.†
Chpt 3.7
But Saruman at any rate is in a cleft stick of his own cutting.†
Chpt 3.9

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.
To find a path in these clefts, which were becoming deeper and more frequent, Frodo and Sam were driven to their left, well away from the edge, and they did not notice that for several miles they had been going slowly but steadily downhill: the cliff-top was sinking towards the level of the lowlands.†
Chpt 4.1
The cleft was longer and deeper than it seemed.†
Chpt 4.1

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.
And then' — his voice sank even lower — 'a tunnel, a dark tunnel; and at last a little cleft, and a path high above the main pass.†
Chpt 4.3
One of their regiments is due by our reckoning to pass by, some time ere noon-up on the road above, where it passes through the cloven way.†
Chpt 4.4
The horn came, but it was cloven in two, as it were by axe or sword.†
Chpt 4.5
And you can tell me nothing of the cleaving of the horn?†
Chpt 4.5
Then they turned aside again, to the right, and came quickly to a small river in a narrow gorge: it was the same stream that trickled far above out of the round pool, now grown to a swift torrent, leaping down over many stones in a deep-cloven bed, overhung with ilex and dark box-woods.†
Chpt 4.5
Presently Frodo was aware of a small dark thing on the near bank, but even as he looked at it, it dived and vanished just beyond the boil and bubble of the fall, cleaving the black water as neatly as an arrow or an edgewise stone.†
Chpt 4.6
It goes up to a high cleft and so down to — that which is beyond.†
Chpt 4.6

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.
He led them through thickets and wastes of brambles; sometimes round the lip of a deep cleft or dark pit, sometimes down into black bush-shrouded hollows and out again; but if ever they went a little downward, always the further slope was longer and steeper.†
Chpt 4.7
The path had veered away from the main pass in the great ravine, and it now followed its own perilous course at the bottom of a lesser cleft among the higher regions of the Ephel Duath.†
Chpt 4.8
Against the sullen redness of the eastern sky a cleft was outlined in the topmost ridge, narrow, deep-cloven between two black shoulders; and on either shoulder was a horn of stone.†
Chpt 4.8
Against the sullen redness of the eastern sky a cleft was outlined in the topmost ridge, narrow, deep-cloven between two black shoulders; and on either shoulder was a horn of stone.†
Chpt 4.8
The Cleft, Cirith Ungol, was before him, a dim notch in the black ridge, and the horns of rock darkling in the sky on either side.†
Chpt 4.9

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.
The tunnel was some way behind; the Cleft a couple of hundred yards ahead, or less.†
Chpt 4.10
He was coming to the top of the steps and was in the Cleft at last.†
Chpt 4.10
' As the sheer sides of the Cleft closed about him, before he reached the actual summit, before he looked at last on the path descending into the Nameless Land, he turned.†
Chpt 4.10
A noise of tramping feet and harsh shouts: Orcs were coming up to the Cleft from the far side, from some entry to the tower, perhaps.†
Chpt 4.10
The head of the orc-company appeared in the Cleft right before him.†
Chpt 4.10

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Best Example Sentences
From Other Sources
Grouped by 2 Meanings

Uses with a meaning too rare to warrant foucs:

So King Theoden rode from Helm's Gate and clove his path to the great Dike.†
Chpt 3.7

clove = a dried flower bud or section of a garlic plant
They had come to the end of a long cutting, deep, and sheer-sided in the middle, by which the road clove its way through a stony ridge.†
Chpt 4.4 *

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

cleave in The Two Towers (Auto-generated)

cleave
in
The Two Towers
(Auto-generated)