cleave

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

• intransitive verb To adhere, cling, or stick fast.
• intransitive verb To be faithful.
• intransitive verb To split with a sharp instrument. synonym: tear.
• intransitive verb To make or accomplish by or as if by cutting.
• intransitive verb To pierce or penetrate.
• intransitive verb Chemistry To split (a complex molecule) into simpler molecules.
• intransitive verb To split or be capable or splitting, especially along a natural line of division.
• intransitive verb To penetrate or pass through something, such as water or air.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To stick; adhere; be attached; cling: often used figuratively.
• To fit closely.
• To part or divide by force; rend apart; split or rive; separate or sunder into parts, or (figuratively) seem to do so: as, to cleave wood; to cleave a rock.
• To produce or effect by cleavage or clearance; make a way for by force; hew out: as, to cleave a path through a wilderness.
• . To part or open naturally.
• Synonyms Split, Rip, etc. See rend.
• To come apart; divide; split; open; especially, to split with a smooth plane fracture, or in layers, as certain minerals and rocks. See cleavage, 2 and 3.
• In agriculture, to replow (old ridges) in such a manner as to divide each in the middle. See cleaving. Also split.
• noun In mining, a subdivision of a bed, usually of iron ore; a bench.
• noun A basket or basketful: as a cleave of potatoes, or of turf.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• intransitive verb To part; to open; to crack; to separate; as parts of bodies.
• intransitive verb To adhere closely; to stick; to hold fast; to cling.
• intransitive verb To unite or be united closely in interest or affection; to adhere with strong attachment.
• intransitive verb Poetic. To fit; to be adapted; to assimilate.
• transitive verb To part or divide by force; to split or rive; to cut.
• transitive verb To part or open naturally; to divide.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb transitive To split or sever something or as if with a sharp instrument.
• verb transitive, mineralogy To break a single crystal (such as a gemstone or semiconductor wafer) along one of its more symmetrical crystallographic planes (often by impact), forming facets on the resulting pieces.
• verb transitive To make or accomplish by or as if by cutting.
• verb transitive, chemistry To split (a complex molecule) into simpler molecules.
• verb intransitive To split.
• verb intransitive, mineralogy Of a crystal, to split along a natural plane of division.
• noun technology Flat, smooth surface produced by cleavage, or any similar surface produced by similar techniques, as in glass.
• verb intransitive To cling, adhere or stick fast to something; used with to or unto.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb make by cutting into
• verb separate or cut with a tool, such as a sharp instrument
• verb come or be in close contact with; stick or hold together and resist separation