U.S. [a. Du. klove, also kloof, in MDu. clove, MLG. klove fem. split, cleft: see CLOVE sb.1] A rocky cleft or fissure; a gap, ravine: used (chiefly in place-names); see quot. 1828.
(The word kloof referring to South Africa is the same.)
1779. A. St. Clair, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), II. 303. A clove which runs round that ridge on which the forts are situated.
1828. Webster, Clove, a cleft; a fissure; a gap; a ravine. This word, though properly an appellative, is not often used as such in English; but it is appropriated to particular places … as, the Clove of Kaaterskill, in the state of New York, and the Stony Clove. It is properly a Dutch word.
1883. Lucy C. Lillie, in Harper’s Mag., Sept., 530/1. The word clove, we know, means only cleft, and these clefts occur frequently in the mountains, never marring their grandeur, rather adding to it.
