ppl. a. [f. CLEFT, CLIFT sb. + -ED; but clefted is sometimes app. an extended form of the pa. pple. cleft.] Having clefts, divisions or fissures; cleft, split.

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1552.  Huloet, Clefted or cleued in two partes, bifidus.

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1565.  Golding, Ovid’s Met., VII. (1593), 159. Dipping in the pits of bloud a sort of clifted brands.

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1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 440. To cover close with cloven or clefted cloaths or garments.

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1697.  Congreve, Mourn. Bride, I. iii. The swarming populace spread every wall … through clifted stones, stretching and staring.

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1776.  Withering, Bot. Arrangem. (1796), II. 208. Flowers sitting, mostly, 4-clefted.

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1861.  L. L. Noble, Icebergs, 248. The whole clifted and pinnacled circumference [of an ice-berg].

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a. 1876.  Aird, Buy a Broom, i. Among the clefted branches.

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