cleav·er

(klē′vər)

1. A heavy, broad-bladed knife or hatchet used especially by butchers.

2. Archaeology A bifacial core tool flaked to produce a straight sharp edge at one end.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

cleaver

(ˈkliːvə)

(Cookery) a heavy knife or long-bladed hatchet, esp one used by butchers

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cleav•er

(ˈkli vər)

n.

1. a heavy broad-bladed knife or long-bladed hatchet, esp. one used by butchers for cutting meat into joints or pieces.

2. a person or thing that cleaves.

[1325–75]

Cleav•er

(ˈkli vər)
n.

(Leroy) Eldridge, 1935–98, civil rights activist and writer.

Cleaver

Regional name for Hot and Cold sets. More often, a butcher’s implement.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

cleaver - a butcher's knife having a large square blade

meat cleaver, chopper

knife - edge tool used as a cutting instrument; has a pointed blade with a sharp edge and a handle

Translations

ساطور القَصّاب

sekáček

flækkekniv

Hackbeil

ππάλα

godolla godoya macheta

couperet

hasítóbárd

öxi

cleaver

[ˈkliːvəʳ] N → cuchilla f de carnicero

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

cleaver

[ˈkliːvə^r] n (= knife) → fendoir m, couperet m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

cleaver

n → Hackbeil nt

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

cleaver

[ˈkliːvəʳ] n → mannaia
meat cleaver (Culin) → marrancio

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

cleave¹

(kliːv) – past tense cleft (kleft) cleaved, ~clove (klouv) : past participles cleft, ~cloven (ˈklouvn) – verb

to split or divide.

ˈcleavage (-vidʒ) noun

1. the act of splitting; a split.

2. the split between a woman's breasts.

ˈcleaver noun

a butcher's knife.

cloven hoof, cleft hoof

a hoof, like those of cows, sheep etc, which has a split up the centre.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Beside this range was a butcher block upon which lay a great cleaver with a keen edge.

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Then there were "cleaver men," great giants with muscles of iron; each had two men to attend him--to slide the half carcass in front of him on the table, and hold it while he chopped it, and then turn each piece so that he might chop it once more.

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Next, he opened his stall and spread his meat upon the bench, then, taking his cleaver and steel and clattering them together, he trolled aloud in merry tones:

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Abdul Aziz, absolute lord of the Ottoman empire--clad in dark green European clothes, almost without ornament or insignia of rank; a red Turkish fez on his head; a short, stout, dark man, black-bearded, black- eyed, stupid, unprepossessing--a man whose whole appearance somehow suggested that if he only had a cleaver in his hand and a white apron on, one would not be at all surprised to hear him say: "A mutton roast today, or will you have a nice porterhouse steak?"

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His exact words were: "Sir Thomas Holt hath taken a cleaver and stricken his cook upon the head, so that one side of the head fell upon one shoulder and the other side upon the other shoulder." The defendant was acquitted by instruction of the court, the learned judges holding that the words did not charge murder, for they did not affirm the death of the cook, that being only an inference.

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"As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a butcher's cleaver in the other.

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Halstead had a long butcher knife and a cleaver. We went out to the outskirts of the city.

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Holding this shield before him, Ajax son of Telamon came close up to Hector, and menaced him saying, "Hector, you shall now learn, man to man, what kind of champions the Danaans have among them even besides lion-hearted Achilles cleaver of the ranks of men.

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"There goes my chance of promotion," Garthwaite laughed, as a woman bore down on the wounded man, brandishing a butcher's cleaver. "Come on.

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Her real name was Fanny Cleaver; but she had long ago chosen to bestow upon herself the appellation of Miss Jenny Wren.

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The intellect is a cleaver; it discerns and rifts its way into the secret of things.

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"A butcher's cleaver that has done butcher's work."

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