Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CLEAR-TON-ED, a.

Having a clear sound.

CLEAT, n. [Qu. the root of L. claudo, Gr. κλειθρον, the fastener.]

A piece of wood used in a ship to fasten ropes upon. It is formed with one arm or two, or with a hollow to receive a rope, and is made fast to some part of a vessel. Cleats are belaying cleats, dock-cleats, or thumb-cleats. – Mar. Dict.

CLEAV'A-BLE, a.

That may cleave or be divided.

CLEAV'AGE, n.

1. The act of cleaving or splitting.
2. In mineralogy, the manner of cleaving or of mechanical divisions. It is used in relation to the fracture of minerals which have natural joints and possess a regular structure. – Phillips.

CLEAVE, v.i.¹ [pret. clave or cleaved. Sax. cleofian, cliofian, to split and to adhere; clyfian, to adhere; D. kleeven; G. kleben or kleiben; Dan. klæber, kleber; Sw. klibba; Russ. lipnu. The old preterit clave is obsolescent.]

1. To stick; to adhere; to hold to. My bones cleave to my skin. – Ps. cii. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. – Ps. cxxxvii. Cleave to that which is good. – Rom. xii.
2. To unite aptly; to fit; to sit well on. – Shak.
3. To unite or be united closely in interest or affection; to adhere with strong attachment. A man shall leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife. – Gen. ii. Matth. xix. Cleave to Jehovah your God. – Josh. xxiii.

CLEAVE, v.i.²

To part; to open; to crack; to separate, as parts of cohering bodies; as, the ground cleaves by frost. The mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof. – Zech. xiv.

CLEAVE, v.t. [pret. cleft; pp. cleft or cleaved. The old pret. clove is obsolete; clave is obsolescent. The old participle, cloven, is obsolescent, or rather used as an adjective. Sax. cleofian, or clifian; D. klooven; G. klieben; Sw. klyfwa; Dan. klöver; Russ. lopayu; Gr. λεπω. This word seems to be connected with the L. liber, free, and bark, book, libero, to free, Fr. livrer, whence deliver.]

1. To part or divide by force; to split or rive; to open or sever the cohering parts of a body, by cutting or by the application of force; as, to cleave wood; to cleave a rock; to cleave the flood. – Ps. lxxiv. Milton. Dryden.
2. To part or open naturally. Every beast that cleaved the cleft into two claws. – Deut. xiv.

CLEAV'ED, pp.

Split; rived; divided.

CLEAVE'LAND-ITE, n. [from Professor Cleaveland.]

A mineral, generally of a white or grayish white color, sometimes blue, or bluish or reddish; called also silicious felspar, or albite. – Phillips.

CLEAV'ER, n.

One who cleaves; that which cleaves; a butcher's instrument for cutting animal bodies into joints or pieces. – Arbuthnot.

CLEAV'ING, ppr.

Sticking; adhering; uniting to. Also, splitting; dividing; riving.

CLECHE, n.

In heraldry, a kind of cross, charged with another cross of the same figure, but of the color of the field. – Encyc.

CLEDGE, n.

Among miners, the upper stratum of fuller's earth.

CLEF, n. [Fr. clef; L. clavis, a key, the fastener.]

A character in music placed at the beginning of a staff, to determine the degree of elevation occupied by that staff in the general claviary or system, and to point out the names of all the notes which it contains in the line of the clef. – Rousseau.

CLEFT, n.

1. A space or opening made by splitting; a crack; a crevice; as, the cleft of a rock. – Is. ii. 21. Addison.
2. A disease in horses; a crack on the bought of the pastern. – Farrier's Dict.
3. A piece made by splitting; as, a cleft of wood. [This word is sometimes written clift.]

CLEFT, pp. [of Cleave.]

Divided; split; parted asunder. – Milton.

CLEFT'-FOOT-ED, a.

Having a cloven foot.

CLEFT-GRAFT', v.t. [cleft and graft.]

To ingraft by cleaving the stock and inserting a cion. – Mortimer.

CLEG, n.

The horse fly; Dan. klæg.

CLEM, v.t. [G. klemmen.]

To starve. [Not in use.] – Jonson.

CLEM'EN-CY, n. [L. clementia, from clemens, mild, smooth; whence Fr. clemence, It. clemenza, Sp. clemencia; W. llim, smooth; Heb. להם to be soft, mild, gentle.]

1. Mildness; softness; as, the clemency of the air. – Dryden.
2. Mildness of temper; gentleness or lenity of disposition; disposition to treat with favor and kindness. I pray thee that thou wouldest hear us of thy clemency a few words. – Acts xxiv.
3. Mercy, disposition to treat with lenity, to forgive or to spare, as offenders; tenderness in punishing; opposed to severity, harshness, or rigor. – Addison.

CLEM'ENT, a.

Mild in temper and disposition; gentle; lenient; merciful; kind; tender; compassionate.

CLEM'EN-TINE, a.

Pertaining to St. Clement, or to his compilation; or to the constitutions of Clement the Fifth.

CLEM'ENT-LY, adv.

With mildness of temper; mercifully. – Taylor.

CLENCH, n. [or v.]

See CLINCH.