ppl. a. [pa. pple. of CLEAVE v.: cf. CLEFT.] Divided lengthwise; split.

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  a.  Split into (thin) pieces; cleft asunder.

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1676.  Hobbes, Iliad, I. 441. And burnt them on a fire of cloven wood.

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a. 1839.  Praed, Poems (1864), I. 264. I look upon them as the soldier looks Upon his cloven shield.

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1866.  Kingsley, Herew., II. ii. 29. One of his best men lying stark, with a cloven skull.

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1877.  Bryant, Odyss., V. 76. The fragrant smoke Of cloven cedar, burning in the flame.

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  b.  Split to a certain depth, so as to give a double extremity; bifurcate, bipartite, double. † Cloven beasts: insects (see CLEFT ppl. a. b).

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1526.  Tindale, Acts ii. 3. Cloven tonges lyke as they had bene fyre.

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1610.  Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 277. She did confine thee … Into a clouen Pyne, within which rift Imprison’d, thou didst painefully remaine.

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1776.  Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), III. 208. Styles yellow, cloven, blunt.

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1797.  Bewick, Brit. Birds (1847), I. 298. The tongue is short, broad, and cloven.

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1829.  Southey, O. Newman, vi. Unless the cloven flame upon thy head Should light.

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  c.  esp. in Cloven hoof or 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.

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c. 1200.  Ormin, 1224. Oxe gaþ o clofenn fot.

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a. 1300.  Cursor M. (Gött.), 1957. Best wid clouen fote in to.

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1578.  A. Parkhurst, Lett., in Hakluyt (1600), III. 133. Mighty beastes like to Camels in greatnesse, and their feete clouen.

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1637.  Milton, Lycidas, 34. Fauns with cloven heel.

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1663.  Butler, Hud., I. i. 184. Whether the Serpent at the Fall Had cloven Feet, or none at all.

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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.

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1727.  De Foe, Syst. Magic, I. iv. (1840), 92. The fancies of men, that the Devil cannot appear without his cloven foot.

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1836.  Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), IV. 120. The cloven foot has again made its appearance in the Tithe Commutation bill.

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1870.  Bowen, Logic, vii. 222.

            All animals which have cloven hoofs are ruminant;
    These animals have cloven hoofs;
***  These animals are ruminants.

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  2.  Comb., as cloven-berry, a W. Indian fruit, and its shrub (Samyda serrulata); cloven-hoofed a.

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1725.  Sloane, Jamaica, II. 109. *Cloven-Berries.… About the Bigness of small Sloes, cleaving into two for the most Part, whence the Name.

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1756.  P. Browne, Jamaica, 217. The larger Cloven-berry Bush.

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1646.  Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 175. The Swine … being … *cloven-hoofed.

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1677.  Plot, Oxfordsh., 188. Cloven-hooft Beasts.

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