cleave to

phrasal verb

cleaved to; cleaved to; cleaving to; cleaves to
formal + literary
1
: to stay very close to (someone)
children cleaving to their families
2
: to stick closely to (something)
usually used figuratively
He continued to cleave to the beliefs of his childhood.

Examples of cleave to in a Sentence

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Full details of the bill have not yet been published, but it is expected to be similar to one proposed in the House of Lords earlier this year, which cleaved to the Oregon model: terminally ill adults with six months or less to live would be able to get medical help to end their lives. The Week, theweek, 10 Nov. 2024 Apparently, that applies to his taste in homes, too, as the 56-year-old just hoisted his modern residence that’s cleaved to a steep hillside in the Elysian Heights area of L.A.’s Echo Park neighborhood onto the market for $2.49 million. Demetrius Simms, Robb Report, 17 Aug. 2024 So, who did Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) cleave to in real life? Stephanie Sengwe, Peoplemag, 17 June 2024 Even mentioning Palestine can be a provocation to those who cleave to the myth of Israel as the only possible Jewish sanctuary. Hazlitt, 6 Mar. 2024 Most people are still cleaving to Trump like Tiberian bats in a cave. Antonia Hitchens, The New Yorker, 23 Feb. 2024 And ice came from a 50-pound block, cleaved to order and chipped to size. Jason O'Bryan, Robb Report, 13 Jan. 2024 Instead of cleaving to ideology and anticolonial solidarity, these countries have embraced a certain postcolonial realism and a desire to adapt to unfolding geopolitical realities. Happymon Jacob, Foreign Affairs, 25 Dec. 2023 This was never discussed; all that was communicated was a hatred of Germans and a desperate cleaving to tradition. Parul Sehgal, The New Yorker, 14 Aug. 2023

Dictionary Entries Near cleave to

Cite this Entry

“Cleave to.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cleave%20to. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.

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