cleave

Definitions

• (transitive) To split or sever something with, or as if with, a sharp instrument.
• (transitive) To break a single crystal (such as a gemstone or semiconductor wafer) along one of its more symmetrical crystallographic planes (often by impact), forming facets on the resulting pieces.
• (transitive) To make or accomplish by or as if by cutting.
• (transitive) To split (a complex molecule) into simpler molecules.
• (intransitive) To split.
• (intransitive) Of a crystal, to split along a natural plane of division.