Pronunciation
- IPA: /klɛft/
cleft (plural clefts)
- 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.
- 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, XXVI:
- A piece made by splitting.
- a cleft of wood
- A disease of horses; a crack on the band of the pastern.
- French: fissure
- German: Spalte, Riß
- Italian: fessura
- Portuguese: rachadura, fissura, partido
- Russian: расще́лина
- Spanish: hendidura
cleft (clefts, present participle clefting; past and past participle clefted)
- (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."
- Simple past tense and past participle of cleave
cleft (not comparable)
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