Forms: 4–9 clift, (5–7 clifte, 5 clyft(e, 6 klyfft), 6– cleft. Also β 4–5 clif, 4–6 clyff(e, 6–8 cliff(e. [Found in 13–14th c. in form clyft, clift, app. going back to an unrecorded OE. *clyft:—OTeut. klufti-z, f. kluƀ- weak grade of *kleuƀ-, cléof- to cleave. Cf. OHG. chluft (MHG., mod.G. and Du. kluft), ON. kluft, Sw. klyft, Da. klyft hole, cave, den, klöft cleft, chink, crevice. The subseq. change to cleft (which has never entirely displaced clift) is through assimilation to cleft, recent pa. pple. of CLEAVE. In 16–18th c. this word appears to have been almost completely confounded with CLIFF, the two forms cliff, clift, being used promiscuously for both words: see the quotations marked β, and see CLIFF, CLIFT.]
1. gen. A space made by cleaving, splitting or separation of parts; a split, fissure, crack, crevice.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 19842. He loked to þe lift, And sagh þar in a mikel clift.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., III. ix. 83. Se hem ryȝt as þouȝ it were þoruȝ a litel clifte.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 81. Clyff, clyft, or ryfte, sissura, rima.
1530. Palsgr., 206/1. Clyft of a tree, crevx.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind., III. VIII. (Arb.), 173. The ryftes and clyftes.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 644. The Cleft or Fissure in the Larynx.
1704. Addison, Italy (1766), 47. There are narrow clifts in the monument.
1776. Withering, Bot. Arrangem. (1796), I. 220. Petal, bell-shaped … Border with 6 clefts.
1796. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, ii. 12. If … the clift in her lip spread much, she [a hare] is old.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., I. xiv. Through the drifts the snowy clifts Did send a dismal sheen.
1847–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 739/1. This hollow [in a horse’s foot] is termed the cleft of the frog.
1880. Haughton, Phys. Geog., iv. 168. The Red Sea and Valley of Jordan … form a narrow cleft of great depth.
† b. A parting (of the hair). Obs. rare.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 18837 (Cott.). In hefd he had a clift beforn, Als nazarens has þat þar er born.
β. form cliff.
c. 1325. [see 2 a].
1440. [see 1].
1535. Coverdale, Judg. vi. 2. The children of Israel made them clyffes in ye mountaynes, and caues and holdes.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 357. Searchyng the clyffes of theyr ryftes.
1575. Turberv., Venerie, 53. The litile clyffes or streakes therein.
1609. Bible (Douay), 2 Esdras xvi. 29. In thicke woodes, and cliffes of rockes.
1670. W. Simpson, Hydrol. Ess., 63. The stony Quarry, full of Cleffs.
1670. Pettus, Fodinæ Reg., iii. 3. These are often found lying upon the cliffs or chincks of Rocks.
1694. [see 2 c].
2. spec. a. The parting of the thighs, the ‘cleaving’ or ‘fork.’ Now dial.
c. 1325. Gloss. W. de Bibbesw., in Wright, Voc., 148. La furchure, the clif [MS. Arund. & Camb. cleft].
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sompn. T., 437. Doun his hond he launcheth to the clifte.
1664. Cotton, Scarron., 60. By a certain whiffe Came from her Arm-pits or her Cliffe.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 289. Legs and thees a’ o’ ae thickness frae cute to cleft.
b. A split made by partially cleaving a tree or the like; esp. a slit or split to receive a graft.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xxxi. (1495), 622. The reid … is somwhat clouen for to yeue ynke the better, and the ryght syde of the clyfte is somwhat lenger than the lyfte syde.
1481. Caxton, Reynard, viii. (Arb.), 15. Bruyn … put his heed ouer his eeris in to the clyft of the tree.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. (1586), 74 b. You must take heed … that the cleft be not to slacke nor to strait.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XVII. xiv. 518 (R.). That the clift of the stocke gape not too much (as being over wide for the graffe).
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., III. 110. You may make an end of stretching, or closing the Cleft … when the Graff, or Graffs are plac’d as they should be.
1712–1851. [see 5].
c. A crack of the skin, a chap; a disease of the feet of horses.
1576. Baker, Jewell of Health, 210 a. It helpeth all the clefts and chops happening on the handes and feete in the winter tyme.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 266/1. For cleftes of the Lippes, Handes, Woemens Pappes, and Heeles.
1694. Lond. Gaz., No. 3003/4. Lost … a brown bay Mare … with a cliff behind.
1726. Farrier’s Dict., 122 (J.). Clefts appear on the Bought of the Pasterns.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., Clifts, call’d otherwise Cracks in the Heels, a Disease incident to Horses.
d. Surg. The aperture in Cleft palate (see next).
1847. J. F. South, trans. Chelius’ Surg., I. 606. If in very large cleft, the closure be difficult.
1885. T. Holmes, Syst. Surg. (ed. 3), II. 502. It will be frequently found that these partial clefts are very broad.
† 3. One of the pieces formed by cleaving; esp. split wood for fuel. Obs. or dial.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 799. Þat all to-wrasted þai wod, & warpyd in-sonder, All claters in clyftez, clene to þair fistez.
1527. MS. Acc. St. John’s Hosp. Canterb. Carriage of a lode of clyftis and pylys.
1562. Ludlow Church. Acc. (1869), 110. A klyfft to make steyes for the belle whelles.
1640. MS. Acc. St. John’s Hosp. Canterb. For helpinge to lood the cleffts to make pales and railes.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., vi. § 10 (1681), 108. Good cleft for the fire.
1887. Scott. Leader, 21 Sept., 6. ‘Wheeling’ a large stick known in Tipperary as a ‘quarter clift.’
b. A strip of glass as cut by the glazier.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 384/2. The Glasiers Diamond … by which he cuts his Glass … into Lengths or Clifts, and from such long pieces or Clifts into shorter pieces as Squares or Quarryes.
4. A division formed by cleaving: spec. a. one of the divisions of the foot in animals; b. one of the divisions of an orange or similar fruit (dial.).
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xix. (1495), 778. The camell is clouefotyd and hath felles in the clyftes … and those clyftes ben flesshly as the clifte of a beers fote.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, III. xxxix. 371. With leaves cloven or cut into five, sixe, or seven cliftes.
1611. Bible, Deut. xiv. 6. Euery beast that parteth the hoofe, and cleaueth the clift into two clawes, and cheweth the cud amongst the beasts: that ye stall eate.
1674. N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., I. (1706), 44. In a Greyhound … a round Foot, and good large Clefts.
1842. Prichard, Nat. Hist. Man, 32. The hoof of the swine is also found divided into 5 clefts.
5. attrib. and Comb., as cleft-hole; cleft-nursed adj.; cleft-graft v. to graft in a cleft (see 2 b); so cleft-grafted ppl. a.; cleft-grafting vbl. sb.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 25. Cutting off the head of the Stock, and smooth it as in Cleft-graffing.
1708. Mortimer, Husb., 520 (J.). Filberts may be cleft-grafted on the common Nut.
1733. Miller, Gard. Dict. (R.). Cleft Grafting, which is also call’d Stock or Slit-grafting; This is proper for Trees or Stocks of a lesser Size.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., s.v. Noger, Their bigness is about an inch at least, for either Blast-holes, or Clift-holes.
1851. Glenny, Handbk. Fl. Gard., 228. They may be … cleft-grafted like the rose.
1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., X. 1040. This mere chance-sown, cleft-nursed seed.
