# cleavage

Pronunciation: say "KLEE-vij" US /ˈkli.vɪd͡ʒ/, UK/AUS /ˈkliː.vɪd͡ʒ/

## Noun

1. The hollow or gap between a woman's breasts, especially where a low neckline shows it.
   - Simple: The space between a woman's breasts, especially when a low top shows it.
   - _The gown's plunging neckline revealed plenty of cleavage on the red carpet._
   - _He kept his eyes politely on her face rather than on her cleavage._
2. The division of voters into separate voting blocs.
   - Simple: The way voters split into groups that each vote the same way.
   - _Pollsters traced the party's defeat to a deepening cleavage between college-educated and working-class voters._
   - _The referendum exposed a sharp regional cleavage that no party could bridge._
3. The act of splitting something apart, or the condition of having been split.
   - Simple: The act of splitting something apart, or the state of being split.
   - _A clean cleavage of the trunk along its grain left two flat halves._
   - _The quarrel over the will left a lasting cleavage between the two branches of the family._
4. The tendency of a crystal to split along particular planes, or a similar tendency in rock, known as schistosity.
   - Simple: The way some crystals and rocks split easily along flat surfaces.
   - _Calcite's cleavage in three directions lets it break into neat rhombs._
   - _The geologists measured the angle of the cleavage in the folded slate._
5. The repeated division of a cell, especially a fertilized egg, into daughter cells after mitosis.
   - Simple: The way one cell, such as a fertilized egg, splits again and again into new cells.
   - _Cleavage of the zygote turns a single large cell into a cluster of smaller ones._
   - _In leeches the first cleavage is unequal, producing one large and one small cell._
6. A separation like the one between a woman's breasts, but between two other body parts, such as the buttocks or the toes.
   - Simple: A gap like the one between breasts, but between other body parts, such as the buttocks or toes.
   - _His low-rise jeans had a habit of revealing cleavage at the back whenever he sat down._
   - _The pumps are cut low over the toes to show a hint of toe cleavage._
7. The splitting of a large molecule into two or more smaller ones.
   - Simple: The breaking up of a big molecule into smaller ones.
   - _Cleavage of the protein by the enzyme yields several short peptides._
   - _Ozone treatment brings about cleavage of the alkene into two smaller carbonyl compounds._

## Origin

Formed from cleave + -age.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/cleavage (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).