- Act of cleaving - A cleaving, splitting, or breaking up into parts. - A method of asexual reproduction among the lowest
(unicellular) organisms by means of a process of self-division,
consisting of gradual division or cleavage of the into two parts, each
of which then becomes a separate and independent organisms; as when a
cell in an animal or plant, or its germ, undergoes a spontaneous
division, and the parts again subdivide. See Segmentation, and Cell
division, under Division. - A process by which certain coral polyps, echinoderms,
annelids, etc., spontaneously subdivide, each individual thus forming
two or more new ones. See Strobilation.
- Split - The act of cleaving or splitting. - The quality possessed by many crystallized substances of
splitting readily in one or more definite directions, in which the
cohesive attraction is a minimum, affording more or less smooth
surfaces; the direction of the dividing plane; a fragment obtained by
cleaving, as of a diamond. See Parting. - Division into laminae, like slate, with the lamination
not necessarily parallel to the plane of deposition; -- usually
produced by pressure.