Cleave
. Either to stick to or to part from. A man “shall cleave to his wife” (Matt. xix. 5). As one that “cleaveth wood” (Psalm cxli. 7). The former is the Anglo-Saxon clíf-an, to stick to, and the latter is cleof-an, to split.
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Entry taken from
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,
edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.