cleave – English verb conjugation

Nominal Forms

Infinitive: to cleave
Participle: cleaved
Gerund: cleaving

Cognates

-

Indicative

Subjunctive

Conditional

Imperative

you	cleave
we	Let's cleave
you	cleave

Indicative

Conditional

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms

to become or remain attached

adhere, attach, cling, conglutinate, stick, stick together, stick with

sever

split, divide, hew, separate

cling

stick, adhere, attach

Antonyms

sever

unite, join, connect, assemble

Additional Information

Phrasal Verbs

Etymology

1. "to split," O.E. cleofan "to split, separate" (class II strong verb, past tense cleaf, past participle clofen), from P.Gmc. *kleubanan, from PIE base *gleubh- "to cut, slice." The old, strong p.t. clave was still alive at the time of the King James Bible; and the p.p. cloven survives, though mostly in compounds. Cleavage in geology is from 1816. The sense of "cleft between a woman's breasts in low-cut clothing" is first recorded 1946, when it was defined in a "Time" magazine article as the "Johnston Office trade term for the shadowed depression dividing an actress' bosom into two distinct sections" [Aug. 5].
2. From Middle English cleven, from the Old English strong verb clēofan (“to split, to separate”), from Proto-West Germanic *kleuban, from Proto-Germanic *kleubaną, from Proto-Indo-European *glewbʰ- (“to cut, to slice”).
3. Doublet of clive. Cognate with Dutch klieven, dialectal German klieben, Swedish klyva, Norwegian Nynorsk kløyva; also Ancient Greek γλύφω (glúphō, “carve”). See: Middle English 'cleven', Proto-Germanic '*kleubaną', Dutch 'klieven', German, old spelling 'klieben', Swedish 'klyva', Norwegian, nynorsk 'kløyva', Greek, Ancient 'γλύφω'.

Verbs referencing "cleave"

Dutch kloven, Low Saxon klöven, Norwegian kløve, Greek, Ancient γλύφω, German, Pennsylvania glewe, Norwegian, nynorsk kløyva, Norwegian kløyve, German, old spelling klieben, Cimbrian khliipan.

Sample Sentences