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cleave

/kliːv/

noun

Meaning

  • Flat, smooth surface produced by cleavage, or any similar surface produced by similar techniques, as in glass.

verb

Meaning

  • To split or sever something with, or as if with, a sharp instrument.

    "The wings cleaved the foggy air."

  • To break a single crystal (such as a gemstone or semiconductor wafer) along one of its more symmetrical crystallographic planes (often by impact), forming facets on the resulting pieces.

  • To make or accomplish by or as if by cutting.

    "The truck cleaved a path through the ice."

  • To split (a complex molecule) into simpler molecules.

  • To split.

  • Of a crystal, to split along a natural plane of division.