different between carve vs cleave

English

Etymology

From Middle English kerven, from Old English ceorfan, from Proto-West Germanic *kerban, from Proto-Germanic *kerban?, from Proto-Indo-European *gerb?- (“to scratch”). Cognate with West Frisian kerve, Dutch kerven, Low German karven, German kerben (“to notch”); also Old Prussian g?rbin (“number”), Old Church Slavonic ?????? (žr?bii, “lot, tallymark”), Ancient Greek ??????? (gráphein, “to scratch, etch”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /k??v/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k??v/
  • Homophone: calve (Received Pronunciation)
• Rhymes: -??(?)v

Verb

carve (third-person singular simple present carves, present participle carving, simple past carved or (obsolete) corve, past participle carved or (archaic) carven or (obsolete) corven)

1. (archaic) To cut.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Sir Galahad

     My good blade carves the casques of men.

2. To cut meat in order to serve it.

3. To shape to sculptural effect; to produce (a work) by cutting, or to cut (a material) into a finished work.
4. (snowboarding) To perform a series of turns without pivoting, so that the tip and tail of the snowboard take the same path.
5. (figuratively) To take or make, as by cutting; to provide.

   • […] who could easily have carved themselves their own food.
6. To lay out; to contrive; to design; to plan.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

carve (plural carves)

1. (obsolete) A carucate.
   • 1862, Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery in Ireland

     ... half a carve of arable land in Ballyncore, one carve of arable land in Pales, a quarter of arable land in Clonnemeagh, half a carve of arable land in Ballyfaden, half a carve of arable land in Ballymadran, ...

   • 1868, John Harland (editor), Wapentake of West Derby, in Remains, Historical and Literary, Connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester, (translating a Latin text c. 1320-46), page 31

     Whereof John de Ditton holds a moiety of the village for half a carve of land.

2. The act of carving

Anagrams

• Caver, caver, crave, varec

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kli?v/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kliv/
• Rhymes: -i?v

Etymology 1

From Middle English cleven, from the Old English strong verb cl?ofan (“to split, to separate”), from Proto-Germanic *kleuban?, from Proto-Indo-European *glewb?- (“to cut, to slice”). Doublet of clive. Cognate with Dutch klieven, dialectal German klieben, Swedish klyva, Norwegian Nynorsk kløyva; also Ancient Greek ????? (glúph?, “carve”).

Verb

cleave (third-person singular simple present cleaves, present participle cleaving, simple past cleft or clove or (UK) cleaved or (archaic) clave, past participle cleft or cloven or (UK) cleaved)

1. (transitive) To split or sever something with, or as if with, a sharp instrument.

   The wings cleaved the foggy air.
2. (transitive, mineralogy) 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.
3. (transitive) To make or accomplish by or as if by cutting.

   The truck cleaved a path through the ice.

4. (transitive, chemistry) To split (a complex molecule) into simpler molecules.
5. (intransitive) To split.

6. (intransitive, mineralogy) Of a crystal, to split along a natural plane of division.

Related terms

Translations

Noun

cleave (plural cleaves)

1. (technology) Flat, smooth surface produced by cleavage, or any similar surface produced by similar techniques, as in glass.

Related terms

• cleavage
• cleft

Derived terms

• cleaver

Etymology 2

From Middle English cleven, a conflation of two verbs: Old English clifian (from Proto-Germanic *klib?n?) and Old English cl?fan (from Proto-Germanic *kl?ban?), both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gleyb?- (“to stick”).

Verb

cleave (third-person singular simple present cleaves, present participle cleaving, simple past and past participle cleaved)

1. (intransitive) To cling, adhere or stick fast to something; used with to or unto.

Translations

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:adhere

References

• cleave in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• cleave in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.