[f. CLEAVE v.2] The action of adhering or sticking to.

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c. 1430.  Cookery Bks. (E.E.T.S.), 42. But ware of cleuyng to the panne.

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c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 8. Clyuynge to, or fastenynge to a þynge [1499 cleuynge], adhesio.

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1655.  Ref. Commw. Bees, 60. To keep asunder the wax from cleaving.

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  b.  fig. (see the verb).

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1580.  Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong., Entretenement, an entertaining, a cleauing one to an other.

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1631.  Gouge, God’s Arrows, I. § 54. 94. A precise cleaving, and close holding to Gods Word.

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1853.  Robertson, Serm., Ser. III. xvii. (1876), 215. The instinctive cleaving of every thing that lives to its own existence.

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