Cleavage
['kliːvɪdʒ] or ['klivɪdʒ]
Definition
(noun.) the act of cleaving or splitting.
(noun.) the line formed by a groove between two parts (especially the separation between a woman's breasts).
(noun.) (embryology) the repeated division of a fertilised ovum.
(noun.) the breaking of a chemical bond in a molecule resulting in smaller molecules.
(noun.) the state of being split or cleft; 'there was a cleavage between the liberal and conservative members'.
Editor: Warren--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The act of cleaving or splitting.
(n.) The quality possessed by many crystallized substances of splitting readily in one or more definite directions, in which the cohesive attraction is a minimum, affording more or less smooth surfaces; the direction of the dividing plane; a fragment obtained by cleaving, as of a diamond. See Parting.
(n.) Division into laminae, like slate, with the lamination not necessarily parallel to the plane of deposition; -- usually produced by pressure.
Inputed by Clinton
Examples
- The ship's prow cleaved on, with a faint noise of cleavage, into the complete night, without knowing, without seeing, only surging on. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- This cleavage in public affairs is the most important choice we are called upon to make. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- This incident of the short ballot illustrates the cleavage between invention and routine. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- There is no obvious cleavage which everyone recognizes. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- But let them all be represented in one room by men who are professionally interested in their constituency's prejudices and what would you accomplish but a deepening of the cleavages? Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
Checker: Sumner