[One of the forms of the pa. pple. of CLEAVE v.1: cf. CLOVEN.] Split asunder; split into thin pieces.
1393. Gower, Conf., II. 264. Tho lay there certain wode cleft.
c. 1520. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 206. xiij peysses of clyft wodd, 20d.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 86/1. A Billet is a piece of Cleft Wood for to Burn.
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, II. 508. From the cleft wood the crackling flames aspire.
1821. Joanna Baillie, Metr. Leg., Calum, vi. 16. Cleft waves.
b. Split or divided to a certain depth; bifurcate. Cleft palate: a malformation of the palate, in which a longitudinal gap exists in the middle or on either side of the roof of the mouth. A cleft stick: a position in which advance and retreat are alike impossible, a dilemma, a fix. † Cleft (or cloven) beasts: insects. Rarely in cleft hoof, foot, where cloven is the ordinary word.
1574. Hyll, Ord. Bees, i. Plinie nameth Bees cleft beasts because of the division or parting betweene of the heade and shoulders. [Ibid., vi. Of all cloven beasts the bees are principally to be cherished.]
1647. Cowley, Mistr., Not Fair. So men … Believe it fair … Till the cleft foot discovers all.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., X. 16. Not steepy Pindus … Nor cleft Parnassus.
a. 1745. Swift, Wks. (1841), II. 355. You may … stick your candle in a bottle … or a cleft stick.
1782. Cowper, Lett to J. Hill, Wks. 1837, XV. 106. We are squeezed to death, between the two sides of that sort of alternative which is commonly called a cleft stick.
1784. Reynolds, in Leslie & Taylor, Life (1865), II. viii. 458. I put him in a cleft stick.
1829. Gen. P. Thompson, Corn Laws, in Exerc. (1842), I. 95. The other side are in a cleft stick; they cannot go on long as they are, and they cannot stir into any new path without demolishing the Corn Laws.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 254. The surfaces … are so flattened that the appearance is that of a single cleft hoof.
1847. J. F. South, trans. Chelius’ Surg., I. 599. Cases of hare-lip and cleft palate.
1878. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., I. 527. Having … successfully treated a medical student for cleft palate.
1880. Gray, Struct. Bot., iii. § 4. 98. A leaf … is said to be cleft, when the division is half way down or more, and the lobes or sinuses narrow or acute.
1885. Arnold’s Catal. Surg. Instrum., 190. Cleft-palate knife … cleft-palate chisel.
c. fig. Divided, twofold.
1597. Shaks., Lover’s Compl., 293. O cleft effect! cold modesty, hot wrath.
