different between cleaver vs cleft

English

Etymology

From cleave +? -er; compare Middle English clevere.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?kliv?/
• Rhymes: -i?v?(r)

Noun

cleaver (plural cleavers)

1. A squarish, heavy knife used by butchers for hacking through bones, etc.
   • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V

     When he came to Nottingham, he entered that part of the market where butchers stood, and took up his inn in the best place he could find. Next, he opened his stall and spread his meat upon the bench, then, taking his cleaver and steel and clattering them together, he trolled aloud in merry tones:...

   • 1946, Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan

     Concurrently with Flay's visualization of the cleaver falling—the cleaver fell.

2. (music, Bahamas) A type of clave, or rhythm stick, a concussive musical instrument used in traditional Bahamian music.
3. (metaphoric) The act of eliminating someone or something, especially when done by someone with a history of other eliminations; a dismissal, rejection, or removal.

   Synonym: axe

Usage notes

As a musical instrument, cleaver is normally used only in the plural, just like the more common synonym claves, which is far more often used internationally and is better known as a part of Cuban music. In the Bahamas, cleavers is the more common terminology.

Related terms

• cleave

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl?ft/
• Rhymes: -?ft

Etymology 1

From Middle English clift, from Old English ?eclyft, from Proto-Germanic *(ga)kluftiz. Compare Dutch klucht (“chaotic”), Swedish klyft (“cave, den”) cave, den, German Kluft. See cleave.

Noun

cleft (plural clefts)

1. An opening, fissure, or V-shaped indentation made by or as if by splitting.
   • 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, XXVI:

     Then came some palsied oak, a cleft in him / Like a distorted mouth that splits its rim / Gaping at death, and dies while it recoils.

2. A piece made by splitting.

   a cleft of wood

3. A disease of horses; a crack on the band of the pastern.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• dimple

Verb

cleft (third-person singular simple present clefts, present participle clefting, simple past and past participle clefted)

1. (linguistics) To syntactically separate a prominent constituent from the rest of the clause that concerns it, such as threat in "The threat which I saw but which he didn't see, was his downfall."

Related terms

• clefting
• cleft sentence

Etymology 2

Verb

cleft

1. simple past tense and past participle of cleave

Adjective

cleft (not comparable)

1. split, divided, or partially divided into two.

   Synonym: cloven

Translations