Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • An obsolete spelling of cleave.
  • An obsolete spelling of cleave.
  • noun A chamber.
  • noun An obsolete or dialectal form of cliff.
  • noun A hill; a hillside.

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

  • noun A room; chamber.
  • noun A cottage.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English cleve, from Old English cleofa, cleafa ("that which is cloven, a cleft, chasm, cave, den, lair, cell, chamber, cellar, apartment"), from Proto-Germanic *klebô (“chamber, cell”), from Proto-Indo-European *gleubh- (“to cut, cleave, split, divide”). Cognate with Old Norse klefi ("a closet, sleeping closet, bedroom") (whence Icelandic klefi ("cell, compartment")). Related to cleave.

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Examples

  • Once you create the bond, they will cleve to you with completely unstinted devotion.

    Cafe Writing-Hopelessly Devoted to You 2008

  • Mad Men beauty January Jones has been making headlines with her interview — and eye-popping cleve — in the November issue of GQ.

    Keira Knightley Breasts Digitally Enhanced For Chanel Ad 2009

  • Men can show off their muscles in it and women can even show a little cleve (if they're lucky).

    Mihal Freinquel: The Power Of Basics: The 4 Garments Every Person Needs 2009

  • If she's allowed to slip and start yammering about cavemen riding dinosaurs or women having to cleve to their husbands or some other such Fundie boilerplate, this campaign is over.

    Palin Took Heat For Giggling After Radio Show Host Attacked Opponent As "Bitch" 2009

  • I forgot you from cleve, yeah, we got it bad last night, but we have power, you?

    Dlisted - Be Very Afraid 2008

  • Why all the fuss over the fortune Obama had to pay for his 30 minutes on the air while Larry King provided almost that much time, FOR FREE, to John McCain? cleve

    Live Blog from the Anchor Desk 10/29/08 2008

  • So unlike the Dems where the people who give the money do the field work, there is a sharp cleve between the two.

    THE NEWS BLOG 2005

  • The farm was not so large or rambling as to tire the mind or foot, yet wide enough and full of change — rich pasture, hazel copse, green valleys, fallows brown, and golden breast-lands pillowing into nooks of fern, clumps of shade for horse or heifer, and for rabbits sandy warren, furzy cleve for hare and partridge, not without a little mere for willows and for wild-ducks.

    Mary Anerley Richard Doddridge 2004

  • Because there was such a cleve in values between the way they lived and what they thought and had been told the Democrats stood for, that they had walked away from the party.

    Archive 2004-07-01 2004

  • The farm was not so large or rambling as to tire the mind or foot, yet wide enough and full of change -- rich pasture, hazel copse, green valleys, fallows brown, and golden breast-lands pillowing into nooks of fern, clumps of shade for horse or heifer, and for rabbits sandy warren, furzy cleve for hare and partridge, not without a little mere for willows and for wild-ducks.

    Mary Anerley : a Yorkshire Tale 1862

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