cloven, ppl. a.
(ˈkləʊv(ə)n)
[pa. pple. of cleave v.: cf. cleft.]
Divided lengthwise; split. a. Split into (thin) pieces; cleft asunder.
| 1676 Hobbes Iliad i. 441 And burnt them on a fire of cloven wood. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) I. 264, I look upon them as the soldier looks Upon his cloven shield. 1866 Kingsley Herew. xxi. 266 He was lying stark with a cloven skull. 1877 Bryant Odyss. v. 76 The fragrant smoke Of cloven cedar, burning in the flame. |
b. Split to a certain depth, so as to give a double extremity; bifurcate, bipartite, double.
† cloven beasts: insects (see
cleft ppl. a. b).
| 1526 Tindale Acts ii. 3 Cloven tonges lyke as they had bene fyre. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 277 She did confine thee..Into a clouen Pyne, within which rift Imprison'd, thou didst painefully remaine. 1776 Withering Brit. Plants (1796) III. 208 Styles yellow, cloven, blunt. 1797 T. Bewick Brit. Birds (1847) I. 298 The tongue is short, broad, and cloven. 1829 Southey O. Newman vi, Unless the cloven flame upon thy head Should light. |
c. esp. in
cloven hoof or
cloven foot, the divided hoof of ruminant quadrupeds, consisting of the third and fourth phalanges of the typical mammalian foot; ascribed in pagan mythology to the god Pan, and thence in Christian mythology to the Devil, and often used allusively as the indication of Satan, Satanic agency, or temptation.
| c 1200 Ormin 1224 Oxe gaþ o clofenn fot. a 1300 Cursor M. (Gött.) 1957 Best wid clouen fote in to. 1578 A. Parkhurst Let. in Hakluyt (1600) III. 133 Mighty beastes like to Camels in greatnesse, and their feete clouen. 1637 Milton Lycidas 34 Fauns with cloven heel. 1663 Butler Hud. i. i. 184 Whether the Serpent at the Fall Had cloven Feet, or none at all. 1682 Addr. Grand Jury Cornwall in Lond. Gaz. No. 1711/4 It looks fair and plausible in the Front, but in the Conclusion, we discover the Cloven Foot of it. 1727 De Foe Syst. Magic i. iv. (1840) 92 The fancies of men, that the Devil cannot appear without his cloven foot. 1836 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) IV. 120 The cloven foot has again made its appearance in the Tithe Commutation bill. 1870 Bowen Logic vii. 222 All animals which have cloven hoofs are ruminant. |
2. Comb., as
cloven-berry, a W. Indian fruit, and its shrub (
Samyda serrulata);
cloven-hoofed a.| 1725 Sloane Jamaica II. 109 *Cloven Berries..about the bigness of small sloes, cleaving into two for the most part, whence the name. 1756 P. Browne Jamaica 217 The larger cloven-berry Bush. |
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 175 The Swine..being..*cloven-hoofed. 1677 Plot Oxfordsh. 188 Cloven-hooft Beasts. |