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Cleave   Listen
verb
Cleave  v. i.  (past clove; past part. cloven or cleaved; pres. part. cleaving)  To part; to open; to crack; to separate; as parts of bodies; as, the ground cleaves by frost. "The Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Cleave" Quotes from Famous Books



... this way. When great masses are affected, a boiling becomes unspeakably grand and terrible. This earth, now so solid beneath, and so green on the surface, seems to have been once a boiling mass. Those mountains that cleave the clouds are the bubbles that rose to the surface and were congealed ere they had time to subside again: there they stand to-day, monuments of the fact. The moral government of God is like the natural. The Maker's method, when he would bring down the high things and exalt the low, is to throw ...
— The Parables of Our Lord • William Arnot

... me from destruction, to make me what I ought to be, to cleave to your husband as if he were yourself, in spite of parents or relations! I am sure, Netta, that you are taught to do all this; besides, you cannot help it, if you love me. You know that I would have married you when I had nothing, as readily as ...
— Gladys, the Reaper • Anne Beale

... her that the young man would seem to have a great sense of the love of God, but that they had fears it did not reach his soul, which they thought did cleave ...
— The Pilgrim's Progress in Words of One Syllable • Mary Godolphin

... is called free-verse does art have a real place. It is all freedom and variety, with almost no restraint and uniformity: all stimulation and no repose. There is sometimes a rapid alternation of verse rhythm and prose rhythm, which, in Bacon's phrase, may cleave but not incorporate; they succeed each other but do not melt into each other. Now and again, to be sure, this uncertainty, this very irregularity, powerfully represents the thought and emotion of the poem; but nevertheless there can be little doubt that except in the limited field of instantaneous ...
— The Principles of English Versification • Paull Franklin Baum

... The heart's faint echo of a strain Of low, sweet music passed away. That true and loving heart, that gift Of a mind, earnest, clear, profound, Bestowing, with a glad unthrift, Its sunny light on all around, Affinities which only could Cleave to the pure, the true, and good; And sympathies which found no rest, Save with the loveliest and best. Of them—of thee—remains there naught But sorrow in the mourner's breast? A shadow in the land of thought? ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... had he followed that profession he would have made a master before a jury. He saw so clearly and felt so deeply, and was so full of generosity and bubbling good-cheer, that he was irresistible. As we know, he proved so to Clara Wieck, who left father and mother and home to cleave ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 14 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Musicians • Elbert Hubbard

... Geoffrey, starting from the sullen state of dejection, and swearing a deep oath—"thou art come in the right time, Julian. Strike me one good blow—cleave me that traitorous thief from the crown to the brisket! and that done, I care ...
— Peveril of the Peak • Sir Walter Scott

... here," said she in the same clear voice, entirely unshaken by my presence. "Edam hath claimed me, and I shall cleave to him. I want none of ...
— The Lord of Death and the Queen of Life • Homer Eon Flint

... and steep slope dense thickets of wild bamboo grow, and a few stunted trees fill some of the less deep clefts, wherever the sunshine can penetrate. Splendid as is the scenery, its gloom, its stillness, its naked crags and peaks, its dark depths that seem to cleave to the very vitals of the earth, become so oppressive that, after a few days spent among them, the traveller is filled with repulsion and almost horror. Few living things have their home there. You might ...
— Stories by English Authors: Africa • Various

... and in some of their domestic habits. The most beautiful of the pigeon kind, however, is the Carrier. They are the very perfection of grace, and symmetry, and beauty. Their colors are always brilliant and changing, and in their flight they cleave the air with a rapidity which no other variety—indeed, which scarce any other bird, of any kind, can equal. History is full of examples of their usefulness, in carrying tidings from one country to another, in letters, or tokens, fastened to their necks or legs, for which they are trained by those ...
— Rural Architecture - Being a Complete Description of Farm Houses, Cottages, and Out Buildings • Lewis Falley Allen

... is the true meaning of the words)[42]—get righteousness. Is this what we are doing? Goodness is the first thing; are we putting it first? Day by day are we saying to it, "Sit thou on my right hand," while we put all other things under our feet? "Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I remember thee not; if I prefer not thee above my chief joy"—is this the kind of honour that we are paying to it? "We make it our ambition," said St Paul, "to be well pleasing unto ...
— The Teaching of Jesus • George Jackson

... may talk of heaven, and observe its outward forms all our lives while harboring this demoniacal crew within; and we shall grow ever harder and colder with intolerance and bigotry under their influence; nor can we ever have that joy in heavenly hope that belongs to those whose hearts cleave to all that is pure and true, and whose souls are therefore filled with ...
— The Elements of Character • Mary G. Chandler

... blows, downright, athwart, horizontal, and from left to right, with such surprising strength and velocity, that it required all the address of the young Englishman, by parrying, shifting, eluding, or retreating, to evade a storm, of which every individual blow seemed sufficient to cleave a solid rock. The Englishman was compelled to give ground, now backwards, now swerving to the one side or the other, now availing himself of the fragments of the ruins, but watching all the while, with the utmost composure, the moment ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 13, - Issue 373, Supplementary Number • Various

... the view of the transforming Christ. He dismisses no people out of His hospital as incurable, because anybody, everybody, the blackest, the most rooted in evil, those who have longest indulged in any given form of transgression, may all come to Him; with the certainty that if they will cleave to Him, He will read all their character and all its weaknesses, and then with a glad smile of welcome and assured confidence on His face, will ensure to them a new nature and new dignities. 'Thou art ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. John Chapters I to XIV • Alexander Maclaren

... Great Britain which are found in the Almanach de Gotha. She is like a magnificent old ruin, almost feudal in fact, and as proud as Lucifer. Her stare is said to be withering, and the poise of her head makes a man's tongue cleave to the roof of ...
— The King's Men - A Tale of To-morrow • Robert Grant, John Boyle O'Reilly, J. S. Dale, and John T.

... Cleave to your country, home, and friends, Die in a sordid strife — You can count your friends on your finger ends In the critical hours of life. Sacrifice all for the family's sake, Bow to their selfish rule! Slave till your big soft heart they break — The ...
— An Anthology of Australian Verse • Bertram Stevens

... stars which gem the night, Be each a blissful dwelling sphere, Where kindred spirits reunite Whom death has torn asunder here, How sweet it were at once to die, And leave this blighted orb afar! Mix soul with soul to cleave the sky, And soar ...
— The Liberty Minstrel • George W. Clark

... entered through (the fissure) of the door; and was perfectly empty and bare; and the weather being, at this time, that of December, and the night too very long, the northerly wind, with its biting gusts, was sufficient to penetrate the flesh and to cleave the bones, so that the whole night long he had a narrow escape from being frozen to death; and he was yearning, with intolerable anxiety for the break of day, when he espied an old matron go first and open the ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... middle-aged desire for calm and comfort. It kicks up its heels for sheer joy of living; it is ever in extremes; it lacks imagination, with the result that it is ruthless. All these characteristics may go with a delightful personality—as in your case, Raymond—but let youth cleave to youth. Youth understands youth. You will in fact be ...
— The Spinners • Eden Phillpotts

... to believe that Christ and Mohammed taught exactly the same religion, or that the church and the theater are precisely equal and alike in their influences on the heart and life; and so they reject several of these inspired men, and cleave to the one they like best. Whereas, if this theory be true, they ought not to act in such a disrespectful way toward any inspired man; but ought to attend the church, the theater and the harem with equal regularity, and serve God, Mammon and Belial ...
— Fables of Infidelity and Facts of Faith - Being an Examination of the Evidences of Infidelity • Robert Patterson

... their neighbors and those that dwelt round about them. "Thou hast broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death," going not forth with our armies, bowing our souls to the dust till our bellies cleave unto the earth; we are killed all the day long, and counted as sheep for ...
— Campaigns of a Non-Combatant, - and His Romaunt Abroad During the War • George Alfred Townsend

... some royal purge display And 'neath that ensign wage a wasteful fray! Brave tongues are thundering from sea to sea, Torrents of sweat roll reeking o'er the lea! My people perish in their martial fear, And rival bagpipes cleave the royal ear! ...
— Shapes of Clay • Ambrose Bierce

... possible danger its expression might incur. But false love will dare, even for the sake of honor, profit or advantage, to forsake the good in its friend, particularly when danger threatens or persecution arises. Much less, then, will he whose love is false cleave to the good in an enemy and stand by and maintain it. And if it necessitated opposing his own interests, he would not support his enemy's deed, however good. Briefly, the proverb, "The world is false and full of infidelity," and that other ...
— Epistle Sermons, Vol. II - Epiphany, Easter and Pentecost • Martin Luther

... defend him, or them, as much as I can, against all other outliers whatever. I will not conceal aught I win out of libkins or from the ruffmans, but will preserve it for the use of the company. Lastly, I will cleave to my doxy wap stiffly, and will bring her duds, marjery praters, goblers, grunting cheats, or tibs of the buttery, or any thing else I can come at, ...
— 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue • Captain Grose et al.

... precious privilege To the pious given, Sending by the dove of prayer Holy words to heaven! Arrows from the burning sun Cleave the quivering air; Swifter, loftier, surer on, Speeds the dove of prayer, Bearing from the parted lips Words of holy love, Warm as from the heart they gushed, To the ...
— The Poorhouse Waif and His Divine Teacher • Isabel C. Byrum

... even the flimsiest veil of conventionality, of custom; soul to soul, clear-visioned, steadfast, as those may be who are quietly watching the approach of death, they looked into each other's eyes and knew that they were alone, he and she, against the world. To cleave to one another, to stand together, he and she, against the whole world,—that was what their betrothal meant. Axel, cut off for ever from his kind if he should not be able to clear himself, Anna, cutting herself off for ever to follow him. Her feet had found the right path ...
— The Benefactress • Elizabeth Beauchamp

... make them better. Ought we not to look and pray for a period to arrive in the history of the church, when men shall no longer need to be lashed and driven, but shall of themselves discern what is best and cleave to it?' ...
— Aurelian - or, Rome in the Third Century • William Ware

... leverage, and he made fine use of a plug-hole which had come to his knowledge behind his berth. It was just above the water-line, and out of sight from deck, because the hollow of the run was there. And long ere the lights of Scarborough died into the haze of night, as the cutter began to cleave watery way, the sailor passed a stout new rope from a belaying-pin through this hole, and then he betrayed his watch on deck by hauling the end up with a clew, and gently returning it to the deep with a long grappling-iron made fast to it. This had not fluke enough to lay ...
— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore

... vibrating his pinions, he mounts and mounts in an ascending spiral till he appears a mere speck against the summer sky; then, if the mood seizes him, with wings half-closed, like a bent bow, he will cleave the air almost perpendicularly, as if intent on dashing himself to pieces against the earth; but on nearing the ground, he suddenly mounts again on broad, expanded wing, as if rebounding upon the air, and sails leisurely away. It is the sublimest feat of the season. One holds his breath ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 91, May, 1865 • Various

... fellow-man. Into the eyes? With them he will wink lustfully. Into the ears? They will hearken to slander and blasphemy. I will breathe her into his nostrils; as they discern the unclean and reject it, and take in the fragrant, so the pious will shun sin, and will cleave to ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg

... those who do, men! They are only children! I know many men who would no more cleave to this life than a butterfly would fold his wings and creep into his deserted chrysalis-case. I do care to live—tremendously, but I don't mind where. He who made this room so well worth living in, may surely ...
— What's Mine's Mine • George MacDonald

... come, as, God willing, there comes to every clean-souled woman, the time to put away all childish things, and all childish memories, and all childish ties, if need be, to follow one man only, and cleave to him, and know his life and hers to be knit up together, past severance, in a love that death itself may not ...
— The Eagle's Shadow • James Branch Cabell

... Grover, seventy-eight years old, testified, "that, above forty-five years since, I, this deponent, wrought much upon Governor Endicott's farm, called Orchard, and did, about that time, help to cut and cleave about seven thousand palisadoes, as I remember, and was the first that made improvement thereof, by breaking up of ground and planting of Indian-corn." The land was granted to Endicott in July, 1632; and the work in which Grover, with others, was ...
— Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II • Charles Upham

... reads a book on logic, probably thinks no better when he rises up than when he sat down, but if any of the principles there unfolded cleave to his memory, and he afterwards, perhaps unconsciously, shapes and corrects his thoughts by them, no doubt the whole powers of his reasoning receive benefit. In a word, every art, from reasoning to riding and rowing, is learned by assiduous practice, and if principles do any good, ...
— Spare Hours • John Brown

... at the floor, too bowed down now by his weight of cares to resent the "we," which had plainly come to stay. He was trying to estimate the size of the gash which this preposterous entertainment would cleave in the Pilkington bank-roll. He doubted if it was possible to go through with it under five hundred dollars; and, if, as seemed only too probable, Mrs Peagrim took the matter in hand and gave herself her head, it might ...
— The Little Warrior - (U.K. Title: Jill the Reckless) • P. G. Wodehouse

... rock, wave! My weak keel shall cleave you like a sword. On, my boat, even though we miss the goal, let us ...
— Lucky Pehr • August Strindberg

... that the offering of sacrifice is not a special act of virtue. Augustine says (De Civ. Dei x, 6): "A true sacrifice is any work done that we may cleave to God in holy fellowship." But not every good work is a special act of some definite virtue. Therefore the offering of sacrifice is not a special act of a ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas

... did it to save it from misery, and with that she was assured, she had sinned against the Holy Ghost, and that she could not repent of any sin. Thus doth Satan work by the advantage of our infirmities, which would stir us up to cleave the more fast to Christ Jesus, and to walk the more humbly and watchfully ...
— Woman's Life in Colonial Days • Carl Holliday

... Has sent him to oar aid. Master of Life, Endue my warriors with double strength! May the wedged helve be faithful to the axe, The arrow fail not, and the flint be firm! That our great vengeance, like the whirlwind fell, May cleave through thickets of our enemies A broad path to our ravaged ...
— Tecumseh: A Drama • Charles Mair

... wrath. "Methought," he cried, "that I dealt with men of honourable mind, not with cheating tricksters. See now! it is little wonder that I slipped, for grease has been set upon my shoes—and, by Thor! I will cleave the man who did it to the chin," and as he said it his eyes blazed so dreadfully that folk fell back from him. Asmund took the shoes and looked at ...
— Eric Brighteyes • H. Rider Haggard

... adapted to the ends she has in view—of all that man has hitherto invented, there can be no doubt. Her missionaries have been more numerous and more successful, ay, and more devoted, than those of any other church. They have gone where even the sword of the conqueror could not cleave his way. They have built churches in the wilderness, which were time-worn and crumbling when the first emigrant penetrated the forests. They have preached to youthful savages who never saw the face of another white man, though they lived ...
— Western Characters - or Types of Border Life in the Western States • J. L. McConnel

... Reverend Charles Trevor, who came two years ago to supply temporarily the place of the Rector of Lynton. He brought his daughter with him; and the first moment I saw her I fell in love with her. My heart seemed to go out from me and cleave to her. I loved her with what I can see now was the selfish ardor of a young man. I had but one thought—to win her. I wrote to my father, who was in Italy, and asked his consent. He refused it in the most decided ...
— Wife in Name Only • Charlotte M. Braeme (Bertha M. Clay)

... overrated its utility. We conceive that the inductive process, like many other processes, is not likely to be better performed merely because men know how they perform it. William Tell would not have been one whit more likely to cleave the apple if he had known that his arrow would describe a parabola under the influence of the attraction of the earth. Captain Barclay would not have been more likely to walk a thousand miles in a thousand hours, if he had known the place and name of every muscle in his legs. ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 2 • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... ever faltered in his fidelity to crown and king. This John Kirkland had sacrificed all things, and, alone with his beloved dead in the darkness of that narrow charnel house, it seemed to him that there was nothing left for him except to cleave to those fallen fortunes and patiently await ...
— London Pride - Or When the World Was Younger • M. E. Braddon

... 's small pity in 't: Like mistletoe on sere elms spent by weather, Let him cleave to her, and both ...
— The White Devil • John Webster

... us, therefore, as we value true peace of mind, genuine happiness, which connects us to the throne of God with golden links of prayer,—it behoves each to ask himself, "Dare I be alone? Am I ready to be alone? And what report will my soul make in that hour of solitude? If I do wrong, if I cleave to evil rather than the good, what shall I do when I am alone, and yet not alone, but with the Father? But if I do right, if I trust in Him, and daily walk with Him, what crown of human honor, what store of wealth, what residuum of ...
— The Crown of Thorns - A Token for the Sorrowing • E. H. Chapin

... to die and leave her—die and leave The heaven so lately won!—And then, to know What misery will be hers—what lonely woe!— To see the bright eyes weep, to see her grieve Will make me a coward as I sink, and cleave To life though Destiny has bid me go. How shall I bear the pictures that will glow Above the glowing ...
— Aylwin • Theodore Watts-Dunton

... will not let you go! Tell me, Norton—oh, tell me why it is that you have changed so completely? This question haunts me. I dream of it in the night; I think of it all day long. Answer me. Though the truth cleave my heart, I would rather hear it! Why have you ceased to love me? Why is it that you ...
— The Old Countess; or, The Two Proposals • Ann S. Stephens

... six months' concern together," he said, as if delivering himself of some studied speech,—"we have six months' concern together; then we may stand at the parting of the ways,—we may cleave to ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XII. September, 1863, No. LXXI. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... head, While beasts like slaves obey, And birds that cut the air with wings, And fish that cleave the sea. ...
— The Psalms of David - Imitated in the Language of The New Testament - And Applied to The Christian State and Worship • Isaac Watts

... of me that really mattered, the myself, the I am I, which knew and considered things, would never perish, I experienced a sudden immense relief. When I went out from her side again I wanted to run and jump for joy and cleave the air like a bird. For I had been in prison and had suffered torture, and was now free ...
— Far Away and Long Ago • W. H. Hudson

... be suspected. Now hearken to me. Ride by my side. Thou seest this purse of gold and this scimetar. Take us, by the route thou hast mentioned, safe to the pass of the Serrania, and this purse shall be thy reward; betray us, and this scimetar shall cleave thee to the saddle-bow."* ...
— Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada • Washington Irving

... a. To split; to crack; to cleave. To Sleeze. v. n. To separate; to come apart; applied to cloth, when the warp and woof readily ...
— The Dialect of the West of England Particularly Somersetshire • James Jennings

... men ask.' that talk of such things? 'Are we enough to make a revolution?' No, sir; but we are enough to begin one, and, once begun, it never can be turned back. I am for revolution were I utterly alone. I am there because I must be there. I must cleave to the right. I cannot choose but ...
— William Lloyd Garrison - The Abolitionist • Archibald H. Grimke

... looks, with hazy lids, At gods who cleave the deep; All night he hears the Nereids ...
— Poems • Madison Cawein

... but where is my troth Of yesternight with Tune: can one cleave to both?" - "Be not perturbed," said she. "Though apart in fame, As I and my sisters are one, ...
— Poems of the Past and the Present • Thomas Hardy

... ensues—with every fierce disease. The stone and cruel gout upon him seize; To quell their rage some fam'd physicians come Who scarce less cruel, crowd the sick man's room; On him they operate—these learned folk, Make him saw rocks, and cleave the solid oak;[8] And gladly would the man his fate resign For such an humble, happy state as thine. Be thankful, Anthony, and think with me, The poor hardworking man may happier be If blest with strength, activity, and health, Than those who roll ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 14, Issue 382, July 25, 1829 • Various

... when thou goest out. The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, discomfiture, and rebuke, in all that thou puttest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the evil of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me. The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest in to possess it. The LORD shall smite thee with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with fiery heat, and with the sword, and with blasting, ...
— Select Masterpieces of Biblical Literature • Various

... sonorous terror the swell of his matchless all-conquering voice, that Losely, in his midmost rage, stood awed and spellbound. His breast heaved, his eye fell, his frame collapsed, even his very tongue seemed to cleave to the parched roof of his mouth. Whether the effect so suddenly produced might have continued, or whether the startled miscreant might not have lashed himself into renewed wrath and inexpiable crime, passes out of conjecture. At that instant simultaneously were heard ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... eventually dropped a thousand feet sheer to the tops of the sugar-pines below, but we knew that Bill knew it also. The half visible heads of the horses, drawn wedge-wise together by the tightened reins, appeared to cleave the darkness like a ploughshare, held between his rigid hands. Even the hoof-beats of the six horses had fallen into a vague, monotonous, distant roll. Then the ridge was crossed, and we plunged into the still blacker obscurity of the brush. Rather ...
— The Idler Magazine, Vol III. May 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... columns of expose on the subject? If the stream where you wish to drink is muddy, you will scarcely find clear waters by descending. You want to go up, not down; up on the high lands where threads of crystal cleave the gray old rocks, and gather purity from earth's deep bosom and the ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 2, August, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... that, young man? Would you, mother? Would you come up to the reporters' table, take up a pen and put your name down to such an excuse? You would say, "Let my right hand forget its cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, ...
— Moody's Anecdotes And Illustrations - Related in his Revival Work by the Great Evangilist • Dwight L. Moody

... composition. His success therein stimulated him to attempt another "tale" which in some respects presents features that ally it to the mock-epic. Beppo is a perfect storehouse of well-rounded satirical phrases that cleave to the memory, such as "the deep damnation of his 'bah'" and the description of ...
— English Satires • Various

... irreverent as well as a fatal misconception. It was Jesus who said, "He which made them at the beginning made them male and female and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh." There is a place in the holy life for the free, happy, and full expression of the instincts and desires that are rooted in our sex natures. The assumed inevitable opposition between bodily and spiritual functions has ...
— Men, Women, and God • A. Herbert Gray

... can now say, I have attained! I have knelt down before him, with the last leaf in my hand, and imploring his forgiveness for all the sins which have polluted my labors in this department, and his aid in future efforts to remove the errors and imperfections which necessarily cleave to the work, I have commended it to his mercy and grace; I have dedicated it to his glory. May he make his own inspired word, now complete in the Burman tongue, the grand instrument of filling all Burmah with ...
— Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons • Arabella W. Stuart

... thought of bringing up the child—how all that was vital to me would be a superstition to you, which you would bear with for my sake. I thought of death,' and she shuddered—'your death, or my death, and how this change in you would cleave a gulf of misery between us. And then I thought of losing my own faith, of denying Christ. It was a nightmare—I saw myself on a long road, escaping with Mary in my arms, escaping from you! Oh, Robert! it wasn't only for ...
— Robert Elsmere • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... question after that of race is settled. Shall the mother's blood continue to flow through its fast-throbbing heart, and all the subtile affinities that bind the two lives be continued until reason and affection take up the chain where the link of bodily dependence is broken? Or shall it cleave no more to her bosom, but transfer its endearing dependence to a stranger, or learn to call ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 19, May, 1859 • Various

... voice, 'it is ordained of thee that thou goest to the lands of the King Pellam in the north, where an evil power seeks to turn men from the New Law which Christ brought, and to make them cleave to the Old Law with its cruelty and evil tortures. And there at the Castle of the Circlet thou shalt fight a battle for the Saviour of the world. And whether thou shalt win through all, none know as yet. But in thy purity, thy humility, is thy ...
— King Arthur's Knights - The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls • Henry Gilbert

... of her honour, My heart! Is she poor?—What costs it to be styled a donor? Merely an earth to cleave, a sea to part. But that fortune should have thrust all this upon her! ("Nay, list!"—bade Kate the queen; 41 And still cried the maiden, binding her tresses, "'Tis only a page that carols unseen, Fitting ...
— Browning's Shorter Poems • Robert Browning

... persona grata whose conversion was ardently desired, but on several public occasions she advised them that their cause and hers were in radical opposition, and that, in fact, she would have none of them, being outside any need of their support, sympathy, or interest. She would cleave to the good God Lucifer, and she aspired to be the bride of Asmodeus. At length the long-suffering editor of the Revue Mensuelle, weary of his refractory protege, would also have none of her, though he ...
— Devil-Worship in France - or The Question of Lucifer • Arthur Edward Waite

... by that name at last, When all my reveries are past, I call thee, and to that cleave fast. Sweet silent creature, That breath'st with me in sun and air; Do thou, as thou art wont, repair My heart with gladness, and a share Of ...
— The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare • Henry Nicholson Ellacombe

... fall and my life be carried under, And Thine anger cleave me through, as a child cuts down a flower, I will praise Thee, Lord, in hell, while my limbs are racked asunder, For the last sad sight of her face and the little grace of ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 2 (of 4) • Various

... yet farther, wider cleave! No longer let our children deem us riches and peace alone; We can be terror and carnage also, and are so now. Not now are we one of these spacious and haughty States, (nor any five, nor ten;) Nor market ...
— Poems By Walt Whitman • Walt Whitman

... come,—it will be very unpleasant. And when a man has a wife and family, the less he meddles with other folks and their little ones, the better. For as the Scripture says, 'A man shall cleave to his wife and—'" ...
— Night and Morning, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... skipper's orders are not being carried out, is because they who now guide the Condor's course, do not intend that her keel shall ever cleave the waters of ...
— The Flag of Distress - A Story of the South Sea • Mayne Reid

... that curse you; do good to them that despitefully use you!' You say you have done your duty; I know you have. Cleave fast to that. Take care, lest you have not that to say ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 7 • Various

... bring forth bore born[1], borne bear, carry bore borne beat beat beaten, beat begin began begun bid bade, bid bidden, bid bite bit bitten, bit blow blew blown break broke broken chide chid chidden, chid choose chose chosen cleave, split {cleft, clove {cleft, cleaved, {(clave)[2] {cloven come came come do did done draw drew drawn drink drank drunk, drunken drive drove driven eat ate (eat) eaten (eat) fall fell fallen fly flew flown forbear forbore forborne forget forgot forgotten, forgot ...
— Word Study and English Grammar - A Primer of Information about Words, Their Relations and Their Uses • Frederick W. Hamilton

... prostrate myself at a shrine I should want an answer. When I came out into the open air I saw again the PLAINNESS of the world: the skies, the sea, the fields are not in accord with incense or gorgeous ceremonies. Incense and ceremonies are beyond the facts, and to the facts we must cleave, no matter how poor ...
— Pages from a Journal with Other Papers • Mark Rutherford

... sin by the Passion and Resurrection, since man had no foreknowledge of his future sin. He does, however, seem to have had foreknowledge of the Incarnation of Christ, from the fact that he said (Gen. 2:24): "Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife," of which the Apostle says (Eph. 5:32) that "this is a great sacrament . . . in Christ and the Church," and it is incredible that the first man was ignorant ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas

... only feels warmly but thinks deeply; and, who shall say what feelings and thoughts may lie beneath the pure waters of that sea of maidenhood whose surface is so still and calm? Love alone can tell: - Love, the bold diver, who can cleave that still surface, and bring up into the light of heaven the rich treasures that are of Heaven's ...
— The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green • Cuthbert Bede

... the Starr family, a few steps northward from Samuel Griffin's, are notable among the tombs of Christ churchyard in being set with the foot due east, as by a mariner's compass. The wide headstones split the plane of the meridian; their edges cleave the noonday sun and the polar star. To the casual observer these three tombstones, as compared with all others in the churchyard, seem quite awry. In reality they alone are meticulously correct, a standing tribute to the exact eye ...
— The Story of Cooperstown • Ralph Birdsall

... would believe about his Minggah. These Minggah and Goomarh spirit trees and stones always make me think, perhaps irrelevantly, of one of the restored sayings of the Lord, which ends 'Raise the stone, and there thou shalt find Me; cleave the wood, ...
— The Euahlayi Tribe - A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia • K. Langloh Parker

... meditating her escape. At length she found in one corner of it a sharp sabre, and drawing up her sleeve to her elbow, she grasped the weapon, which she struck with such force at her false friend, who was reclining on a sofa, as to cleave the head of the abandoned procuress in two, and she fell down weltering in her blood, ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments vol. 4 • Anon.

... reasonable motives, would lead, if not watched and checked, to other still greater changes, and because an uninterrupted succession of such changes would bring the minds of their youth under the most imperious despotisms, the despotism of fashion; in consequence of which they would cleave to the morality of the world instead of ...
— A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume I (of 3) • Thomas Clarkson

... brisk nor'easterly breeze behind her, the Golden Boar slipped through the sunlit waters of Plymouth Sound as gracefully as a fair swan might cleave the bosom of a lake. Somewhat narrow in build, moderately low in the waist, with bow and poop not too high-pitched, masts tall and sails ample, she was built with an eye to speed. And with carved posts and rails for her bulwarks, many-windowed cabins in ...
— Sea-Dogs All! - A Tale of Forest and Sea • Tom Bevan

... drinks I make grand odes of tempests there. The steel-winged eagle, if he dare To cleave these tracts of frozen air, Hearing such music, ...
— Miscellany of Poetry - 1919 • Various

... his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.' We shall have to ...
— The Hero • William Somerset Maugham

... prisoner until he and Buckingham had made a King of Henry Tudor, when he would wed me whether I wished or no. Later it seems he somewhat changed his plans, and instead of joining openly with Henry he remained with you, Sire; yet with full intention, as he, himself, assured me, to cleave to whatever side was winning in the battle. So was he sure, he said, to be in favor with whomever wore the crown. Of all these crimes and treasons is yonder false lord guilty. And had not Sir John De Bury and Sir Aymer de Lacy carried ...
— Beatrix of Clare • John Reed Scott

... I purpose round the queen to weave, And wrap her soul in flames, that power malign Shall never change her, but her heart shall cleave Fast to AEneas with a love like mine. Now learn, how best to compass my design. To Tyrian Carthage hastes the princely boy, Prompt at the summons of his sire divine, My prime solicitude, my chiefest joy, Fraught with brave store of gifts, saved ...
— The Aeneid of Virgil - Translated into English Verse by E. Fairfax Taylor • Virgil

... kind of limp passiveness, hers, quaking, especially as, in the old use of York, he took her "for laither for fairer"—laith being equivalent to loathly—"till death us do part." And with failing heart, but still resolute heart, she faltered out her vow to cleave to him "for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness or health, and to be bonner (debonair or cheerful) and boughsome ...
— Grisly Grisell • Charlotte M. Yonge

... took her rag of a staysail, distending it as though it would tear it clean out of the bolt-ropes, and heeling the vessel over until we could see the whole of her bottom nearly down to her keel; and then her sharp bows would cleave the wave-crest in a perfect cataract of foam and spray, and away she would settle down once more with a heavy weather-roll into ...
— For Treasure Bound • Harry Collingwood

... sentiments on the law reasoning of the argument. What a great thing it is to stand up for liberty, true liberty, from a mind truly delivered from all selfishness, in an unfeigned love to God and mankind. O the selfishness of the human heart, how much of it is apt still to cleave to us, even when ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917 • Various

... on whom his enemies alone—assuredly not his most loving, most reverent, and most thankful disciples—might possibly and plausibly retort that he was "very French, too French, even"; but he certainly was not "too English" to see and cleave to the main fact, the radical and central truth, of personal or national character, of typical history or tradition, without seeking to embellish, to degrade, in either or in any way to falsify it. From king to king, from cardinal to cardinal, from ...
— A Study of Shakespeare • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... prisoners. Still, he trembled as he slipped past it. Suppose a hand had been pushed through to clasp his limbs, or a voice had given the alarm, and warned the watchful guards! But his feet touched ground in safety. His eyes, accustomed for long years to cleave the darkness, guided him straight to the shed and to the coil of rope. He seized it as the shipwrecked mariner clutches that which is thrown him from the shore to drag him through the roaring breakers, and then, winding it about his waist, he retraced his steps. To return to his cell ...
— Bred in the Bone • James Payn

... to the People, the People are engaged in love and faithfulness to cleave close to them in defence and protection. But when a Parliament have no care herein, the hearts of the People run away from them like sheep ...
— The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth • Lewis H. Berens

... his wife, milking the late-found cow. She has a ludicrous look. An old rag of linsey-woolsey hugs her spindle form; her teeth are shovels, and cleave down her nether lip; her eyes catch every point of the compass across each other's glance; her forehead is low, her hair, a smoky white, and her voice, now flat, now treble, and now sharp. But a kinder, or more guileless heart never warmed a human breast, than that which lies ...
— Summerfield - or, Life on a Farm • Day Kellogg Lee

... fell from his lips I nearly leaped from my saddle, and mechanically raised my sabre to cleave him on the spot. ...
— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 2 (of 2) • Charles Lever

... an' grand under his sorrows. Who should knaw but me?" cried Phoebe. "A man in ten thousand, he is, an' never yields to no rod. He'll win his way yet; an' I be gwaine to cleave to un if he travels to the other ...
— Children of the Mist • Eden Phillpotts

... wrong. She knew that she had done wrong. She knew that she had sinned with that sin which specially disgraces a woman. She had said that she would become the wife of a man to whom she could not cleave with a wife's love; and, mad with a vile ambition, she had given up the man for whose modest love her heart was longing. She had thrown off from her that wondrous aroma of precious delicacy, which is the greatest treasure of womanhood. ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope

... of the Westr. Election are carried such lengths the Military obliged to be called into the assistance of Ld. Hood's party. Several Persons have been killed by Ld. J. Townsend's Butchers who cleave them to the Ground with their Cleavers—Mr. Fox very narrowly escaped being killed by a Bayonet wch. w'd certainly have been fatal had not a poor Black saved him fm. the blow. Mr. Macnamara's Life is despaired of—& several others have died in the difft. ...
— Collections and Recollections • George William Erskine Russell

... stood for a moment like one overcome with drowsiness, when suddenly he felt a strange pressure within him—something that made it difficult to breathe, and bound his breast as with iron bars. Then he thought of the bundle that he had just thrown into the river; he saw it cleave the flood; he heard the rush of water, and remembered that the hat which he had forced over the man's face had been the last thing visible on the surface—a round, strange-looking thing. He saw the hat quite ...
— Debit and Credit - Translated from the German of Gustav Freytag • Gustav Freytag

... what faith?' said Alice the nurse, 'The man will cleave unto his right.' 'And he shall have it,' the lady replied, ...
— English Songs and Ballads • Various

... will be, while they cleave to Jesus. After breakfast we proceeded to Leeds, where we dined, and took an affectionate leave of each other. I then retired with the female part of the company to commend them to God." [Her parting counsels, which were inscribed in my ...
— Religion in Earnest - A Memorial of Mrs. Mary Lyth, of York • John Lyth

... of deliverance and victory record the solemn vow, that our right hand shall forget her cunning before we forget them and their sufferings,—that our tongue shall cleave to the roof of our mouth if we remember them not above ...
— Household Papers and Stories • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... joys, she soars above That to the toilette's duties cleave; Far other cares her bosom move, Far other ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume 1 • Madame D'Arblay

... seasons. People talk, and encourage mobs to think, that Parliaments cause, and that Parliaments could heal if they pleased, the evil of fluctuation in grain. Alas! the evil is as ancient as the weather, and, like the disease of poverty, will cleave to society for ever. And the way in which a corn-law—that is, a restraint upon the free importation of corn—affects the case, is this:—Relieving the domestic farmer from that part of his anxiety which points to the competition of foreigners, it confines it to ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXVI. October, 1843. Vol. LIV. • Various

... death as threatening to the continuance of the ego, in spite of the theories of a future life which we have so elaborately developed. Indeed, the psychical shrinking is really the quintessence of the physical fear. We cleave to the abstract idea closer even than to its concrete embodiment. Sooner would we forego this earthly existence than surrender that something we know as self. For sufficient cause we can imagine courting death; we cannot conceive of ...
— The Soul of the Far East • Percival Lowell

... coppices, riding about them, and they appeared, on the outside, very thick and well-grown unto me, but, when I turned into the midst of them, I found them all bitten within, and full of plains and bare spots; like the apple or pear, fair and smooth without, but when you cleave it asunder, you find it rotten at heart. Even so this kingdom, the external government being as good as ever it was, and I am sure as learned judges as ever it had, and I hope as honest administering justice within it; and for peace, both ...
— Literary Character of Men of Genius - Drawn from Their Own Feelings and Confessions • Isaac D'Israeli

... I thought. You thoroughly deserved to cleave through the cold waters of Iceland in a ...
— Seven Icelandic Short Stories • Various

... "And marked you not the words of the traitor, as they met? 'My Lord,' quoth he, 'you are my shield and defence.' {6} Would that I could cleave his ...
— The Little Duke - Richard the Fearless • Charlotte M. Yonge

... he came; but his Poems will not, cannot die. When those other Writers will have been forgotten; when even the gifted Maker of "Ben Hur" will be, but as an empty name; even then, this Poet, and his Poems, will cleave to the Mind, cling to the Heart, of countless Generations, ...
— A Spray of Kentucky Pine • George Douglass Sherley

... 'neath his Tree. But many days the burden of release— To be escaped beyond all storms of doubt, Safe on Truth's shore—lay, spake he, on that heart A golden load; for how shall men—Buddh mused— Who love their sins and cleave to cheats of sense, And drink of error from a thousand springs— Having no mind to see, nor strength to break The fleshly snare which binds them—how should such Receive the Twelve Nidanas and the Law Redeeming all, yet strange to profit by, As the ...
— The Light of Asia • Sir Edwin Arnold

... a truth, which, perhaps, till then had been entirely overlooked by him. This friend reminded him that when he plighted his vows to his young wife at the altar, he did most solemnly promise, agreeably to God's ordinance, "that he would forsake father and mother, and all others, and he would cleave to his wife, and to her alone; that he would take her for better ...
— Mrs Whittelsey's Magazine for Mothers and Daughters - Volume 3 • Various

... I am so ignorant, teach me, give me Thy wisdom in this momentous hour. If those who cleave to Thee amid this awful time must seal their witness with death, must face martyrdom, then let me be counted worthy to die for Thee. In the old days, before yesterday's great event, all prayer had to be offered to Thee through Jesus Christ. I know ...
— The Mark of the Beast • Sidney Watson

... to disturb the harmony and mar the beauty of God's primal creation, defile heaven itself, fill earth with corruption and violence, and still exist even in eternity? Ah, we tread on ground here where we need to be completely self-distrustful, and to cleave with absolute confidence and dependence to the revelation ...
— Old Groans and New Songs - Being Meditations on the Book of Ecclesiastes • F. C. Jennings

... to my mouth's roof let cleave, If I do thee forget, Jerusalem, and thee above My chief joy do ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham

... excommunication!] "Collins was not a sharper, and would have disdained practices to which Bentley stooped for the sake of a professorship." (p. 310.) [O high-minded Collins!] "The dirt endeavoured to be thrown on Collins will cleave to the hand that throws it." (p. 309.) [O dirty Bentley!] And though "Collins's mistakes, mistranslations, misconceptions, and distortions are so monstrous, that it is difficult for us now, forgetful how low classical learning had sunk, to believe that they ...
— Inspiration and Interpretation - Seven Sermons Preached Before the University of Oxford • John Burgon

... luckless Hebrews at Jerusalem who shall secede from their faith. Their old community spurn them with horror; and I heard of the case of one unfortunate man, whose wife, in spite of her husband's change of creed, being resolved, like a true woman, to cleave to him, was spirited away from him in his absence; was kept in privacy in the city, in spite of all exertions of the mission, of the consul and the bishop, and the chaplains and the beadles; was passed away from Jerusalem ...
— Notes on a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo • William Makepeace Thackeray

... confession of what we only suspected—his theft of my father's will. I did not reflect for the moment that Mr. Allardyce would have something to say in that matter, and already saw myself reinstated in my father's property (though I meant to cleave to my new profession), when suddenly I noticed that Vetch was swaying in the saddle. Thinking him overcome with faintness from his wound, I cantered up to assist him, but just as I reached him ...
— Humphrey Bold - A Story of the Times of Benbow • Herbert Strang

... not yet learned that it is best to cleave unto the truth, and let the consequences take care ...
— Work and Win - or, Noddy Newman on a Cruise • Oliver Optic

... to isle ofeel-field Dight am I to hie me: Give, O God, thy singer With glaive to end the striving. Here shall I the head cleave Of Helga's love's devourer, At last my bright sword bringeth Sundering of head ...
— The Story Of Gunnlaug The Worm-Tongue And Raven The Skald - 1875 • Anonymous

... is, apparently, simply to free himself from any suspicion which the discovery of the murder might suggest, by showing himself, just before it, quite indifferent to the predictions, and merely looking forward to a conversation about them at some future time. But why does he go on, 'If you shall cleave,' etc.? Perhaps he foresees that, on the discovery, Banquo cannot fail to suspect him, and thinks it safest to prepare the way at once for an understanding with him (in the original story he makes Banquo his accomplice before ...
— Shakespearean Tragedy - Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth • A. C. Bradley

... Judith—as if I wished to quit father and mother—if father and mother was livin', which, howsever, neither is—but if both was livin', I do not feel towards any woman as if I wish'd to quit 'em in order to cleave unto her." ...
— The Deerslayer • James Fenimore Cooper

... absent sun supply, The flaming piles with plenteous fuel raise, Till the bright morn her purple beam displays; Lest, in the silence and the shades of night, Greece on her sable ships attempt her flight. Not unmolested let the wretches gain Their lofty decks, or safely cleave the main: Some hostile wound let every dart bestow, Some lasting token of the Phrygian foe: Wounds, that long hence may ask their spouses' care, And warn their children from a Trojan war. Now, through the circuit of our Ilion wall, Let sacred heralds ...
— MacMillan's Reading Books - Book V • Anonymous

... knee, severed the tendon. Down it came, still hugging Steinar. I smote again with all my strength, and cut into its spine above the tail, paralysing it. It was a great blow, as it need to be to cleave the thick hair and hide, and my sword broke in the backbone, so that, like Ragnar, now I was weaponless. The forepart of the bear rolled about in the snow, although its ...
— The Wanderer's Necklace • H. Rider Haggard

... mercy on Jacob yet, And again in his border see Israel set. When Judah beholds Jerusalem, The stranger-seed shall be joined to them: To Jacob's House shall the Gentiles cleave. So the Prophet saith and his ...
— Dramatic Romances • Robert Browning

... As thus. A woman seeketh naturally a man: but this is a woman; therefore she sought naturally a man. My friends, that is just what she did. For she sought Messire Prosper le Gai, a lord, the friend of ladies. Again. A man should cleave unto his wife: but Messire le Gai is a man, therefore Messire should cleave unto his wife. 'La, la!' one will say, 'but he hath no wife, owl!' and think to lay me flat. Oh, wise fool, I reply, take another syllogism ...
— The Forest Lovers • Maurice Hewlett

... and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live; that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest cleave unto him, for he is thy life and the length of thy days, that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord God sware unto thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and ...
— The Good News of God • Charles Kingsley

... birds that cleave the air Is not discovered, nor yet the path of fish That skim the water, so the course of those Who do good ...
— Book of Wise Sayings - Selected Largely from Eastern Sources • W. A. Clouston

... he would not have put a single obstacle in her way; but she was going from him, and the very, very dear relations they had so long sustained would never be exactly the same again. It was the destiny of a woman to cleave to her husband. He found no fault with the law of nature, but he had clung to Daisy so devotedly that he could not welcome very sincerely the hour that was to ...
— A Black Adonis • Linn Boyd Porter

... soul, And Tammany his pattern, all were well. Francos: Great Caesar, trust me well; I smell the rot that distance cannot smother, and will clean The halls of state, and there implant true men. Caesar: And silence! speak nor write not idle words, For they are often swords which cleave the soul; When enemies who wield a cunning hand Shall thrust them back, and laugh in gleeful scorn. E'en I regret what in an idle hour, I thoughtless paged regarding freedom's gift. And now they sting me, sting me to the soul. Oh that ...
— 'A Comedy of Errors' in Seven Acts • Spokeshave (AKA Old Fogy)

... he only claimed the dwelling. They take the sharpened scalpel of surmises And cleave the sinews when the heart is swelling, And slaughter Fame and Honor for their prizes. They make the spirit in the body quiver; They quench the ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various

... may be so forgotten that Cis may return safely. The maid hath been our child too long for us to risk her alone. And for such love being weak and foolish, surely, sir, it was the voice of One greater than you or I that bade a man leave his father and mother and cleave ...
— Unknown to History - A Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland • Charlotte M. Yonge

... never be in danger of popery so long as we took care of our fleet; that the Thames was the noblest river in Europe, that London Bridge was a greater piece of work than any of the seven wonders of the world; with many other honest prejudices which naturally cleave to the heart ...
— The De Coverley Papers - From 'The Spectator' • Joseph Addison and Others

... I paused a second, yet that was enough to give me glimpse of the weird scene. I saw De Artigny lunge with his knife, a huge savage reeling beneath the stroke, and Barbeau cleave passage to the rescue, the stock of his gun shattered as he struck fiercely at the red devils ...
— Beyond the Frontier • Randall Parrish

... my darling, my blossom, Nor anguish nor falsehood shall know; Together we cleave the wild billow— Unfaltering together we go To rest on the same rocky pillow, To slumber and ...
— Indian Legends of Minnesota • Various

... her not to waltz, and she had waltzed with, as Lord George thought, the most objectionable man in all London. He had ordered her to leave town with him immediately after Mrs. Jones's ball, and she had remained in town. He had ordered her now to leave her father and to cleave to him; but she had cleft to her father and had deserted him. What husband can do other than repudiate his wife under such circumstances as these! He was moody, gloomy, silent, never speaking of her, never going into Brotherton lest by chance he should see ...
— Is He Popenjoy? • Anthony Trollope



Words linked to "Cleave" :   bond, attach, stick, cleft, touch, hold fast, make, cling, conglutinate, maul, contact, cohere, meet



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