tocleave

verb — 2 senses

tocleave

verb

Etymology From Middle English tocleven, from Old English tōclēofan (“to split apart, cleave asunder”), from Proto-Germanic *tōkliubaną (“to split apart”), equivalent to to- + cleave (“to split”). Cognate with Old High German zechluiban (“to split apart, cleave asunder”).

1

Dialectal, Obsolete To divide; split open; cleave asunder.

2

Dialectal, Obsolete To split apart; break.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.