split

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To divide (something) from end to end, into layers, or along the grain: synonym: tear.
• intransitive verb To cause to be split unintentionally.
• intransitive verb To cause to undergo nuclear fission or division into elements.
• intransitive verb To affect with force in a way that suggests tearing apart.
• intransitive verb To separate (people or groups, for example); disunite.
• intransitive verb Sports To advance between (a pair of defenders) when trying to score.
• intransitive verb To divide and share.
• intransitive verb To divide, as for convenience or proper ordering.
• intransitive verb To separate (leather, for example) into layers.
• intransitive verb To mark (a vote or ballot) in favor of candidates from different parties.
• intransitive verb To divide (a company's stock) by issuing multiples of the existing shares with a corresponding reduction in the price of each share, so that the total value of the stock is unchanged.
• intransitive verb Sports To win half the games of (a series or double-header).
• intransitive verb Slang To depart from; leave.
• intransitive verb To become separated into parts, especially to undergo lengthwise division.
• intransitive verb To undergo nuclear fission or break into atomic components.
• intransitive verb To be or admit of being divided.
• intransitive verb Informal To become divided or part company as a result of discord or disagreement.
• intransitive verb Slang To depart; leave.
• noun The act of splitting or the result of it.
• noun A breach or rupture in a group.
• noun The division of a company's stock by issuing multiples of the existing shares with a corresponding reduction in the price of each share.
• noun A thing that is formed by splitting, such as a strip of flexible wood used for making baskets.
• noun A dessert of sliced fruit, ice cream, and toppings.
• noun The recorded time for an interval or segment of a race.
• noun An arrangement of bowling pins left standing after a bowl, in which two or more pins remain standing with one or more pins between them knocked down.
• noun An acrobatic feat in which the legs are stretched out straight in opposite directions at right angles to the trunk.
• noun A bottle or glass of an alcoholic or carbonated beverage half the usual size.
• noun A single thickness of a split hide.
• adjective Having been divided or separated.
• adjective Fissured longitudinally; cleft.
• idiom (split hairs) To see or make trivial distinctions; quibble.
• idiom (split one's sides) To laugh heartily.
• idiom (split the difference) To take half of a disputed amount as a compromise.

from The Century Dictionary.

• Divided; separated; rent; fractured.
• In botany, deeply divided into segments; cleft.
• Opened, dressed, and cured, as fish: opposed to round.
• noun In glass-cutting, an acute-angled cut made by a mitered wheel.
• In agriculture, same as cleave, 4.
• In faro, to divide (a bet). When two cards of the same denomination come out of the box on the same turn, the banker splits all bets on that card, taking half the amount for himself.
• In whist, noting a hand which contains four trumps and three of each of the plain suits.
• In glass manufacturing, said of a cut made by a mitered wheel and showing an acute angle.
• To cleave or rend lengthwise; separate or part in two from end to end forcibly or by cutting; rive; cleave.
• To tear asunder by violence; burst; rend: as, to split a rock or a sail.
• To divide; break into parts.
• To cause division or disunion in; separate or cause to separate into parts or parties, as by discord.
• In leather manufacturing, to divide (a skin) parallel with one of its surfaces. See splitting-machine.