different between cleft vs clough

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

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English clough, clow, clogh, Old English *cl?h, from Proto-Germanic *klanhaz, *klanh? (“cleft, sluice, abyss”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Scots cleuch (“gorge; ravine”), Old High German kl?h (in placenames), Old High German klingo, klinga (“brook, cataract, gulf, rapids”). Perhaps conflated or influenced by Old Norse klofi (“a cleft or rift in a hill, ravine”); compare Dutch kloof (“a slit, crevice, chink”). See also cling, clove.

Alternative forms

• cleugh, cleuch (Scotland)
• cleugh (Northumbria)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl?f/, /kla?/

Noun

clough (plural cloughs)

1. (Northern England, US) A narrow valley; a cleft in a hillside; a ravine, glen, or gorge.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)

2. A sluice used in returning water to a channel after depositing its sediment on the flooded land.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

3. A cliff; a rocky precipice.
4. (dialectal) The cleft or fork of a tree; crotch.
5. (dialectal) A wood; weald.

Derived terms

• Howden Clough

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Alternative forms

• cloff

Pronunciation

Noun

clough (plural cloughs)

1. Formerly an allowance of two pounds in every three hundredweight after the tare and tret are subtracted; now used only in a general sense, of small deductions from the original weight.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “clough”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• clough in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.