cleave to
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
Recent Examples on the Web
Cleaving from himself as Comet, FourArm cleaves to himself as FiveArm’s remnant, and so—are Comet and FourArm two selves of the same self? —
Mandy-Suzanne Wong, Longreads, 5 Feb. 2026 Rose, writing a monograph on the failure of realism to capture the climate crisis between 2015 and 2030, proposes that historians should cleave to facts. —Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Mandy-Suzanne Wong, Longreads, 5 Feb. 2026 Rose, writing a monograph on the failure of realism to capture the climate crisis between 2015 and 2030, proposes that historians should cleave to facts. —Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cleave to.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.grautoblog.com/dictionary/cleave%20to. Accessed 28 Apr. 2026.
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