Cleft
[kleft] or [klɛft]
Definition
(noun.) a split or indentation in something (as the palate or chin).
(adj.) having one or more incisions reaching nearly to the midrib .
Editor: Will--From WordNet
Definition
(imp.) of Cleave
(p. p.) of Cleave
(-) imp. & p. p. from Cleave.
(a.) Divided; split; partly divided or split.
(a.) Incised nearly to the midrib; as, a cleft leaf.
(n.) A space or opening made by splitting; a crack; a crevice; as, the cleft of a rock.
(n.) A piece made by splitting; as, a cleft of wood.
(n.) A disease in horses; a crack on the band of the pastern.
Typist: Miranda
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Crevice, chink, fissure, rift, break, breach, gap, cranny, crack, interstice, opening, fracture, chap, chasm.
Checker: Noelle
Definition
n. an opening made by cleaving or splitting: a crack fissure or chink.—Also Clift (B.).
pa.t. and pa.p. of Cleave.
Inputed by Heinrich
Examples
- A solitary sea-gull winged its flight over our heads, to seek its nest in a cleft of the precipice. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Tis cleft-wood, that's what 'tis, said Timothy Fairway. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- The Austrian crown is a sort of cleft tiara, having in the middle a semicircle of gold supporting a mound and cross; the tiara rests on a circle with pendants like those of a miter. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Venn looked gloomy, threw--the die was seen to be lying in two pieces, the cleft sides uppermost. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- He bore in his right hand a tallow candle stuck in the end of a cleft stick. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- These are carved pieces of metal in the lock which fit into clefts or grooves in the key and prevent the lock from being opened except by its own proper key. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
Editor: Lucius