cleavers


Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Related to cleavers: Galium aparine

cleav·ers

 (klē′vərz)
pl.n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb)
1. An annual, climbing bedstraw (Galium aparine) found throughout North America and Eurasia, having hooked bristles on the stems, leaves, and fruit that cling to fur or clothing.
2. Any of various other species in the genus Galium.

[Middle English clivers, probably blend of clife, burdock (from Old English clīfe) and clivres, claws (from Old English clifras, pl. of clifer).]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

cleavers

(ˈkliːvəz)
n
(Plants) (functioning as singular) a Eurasian rubiaceous plant, Galium aparine, having small white flowers and prickly stems and fruits. Also called: goosegrass, hairif or sticky willie
[Old English clīfe; related to clīfan to cleave2]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cleav•ers

(ˈkli vərz)

n., pl. -ers.
a North American plant, Galium aparine, of the madder family, having short, hooked bristles on the stems and leaves and bearing very small white flowers.
Also called goose grass.
[before 1000; Middle English clivre, Old English clife burdock (-re probably by association with Middle English clivres (pl.) claws, or with the agent n. from cleven to cleave1)]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.cleavers - annual having the stem beset with curved pricklescleavers - annual having the stem beset with curved prickles; North America and Europe and Asia
bedstraw - any of several plants of the genus Galium
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations

cleavers

[ˈkliːvəz] nsg (Bot) → attaccamani m inv, attaccavesti m inv
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
References in classic literature ?
He had early learned that it was wise to get along well with sea-cooks, since sea-cocks were notoriously given to going suddenly lunatic and slicing and hacking up their shipmates with butcher knives and meat cleavers on the slightest remembered provocation.
They were ready for a dance in half a second (Meg and Richard at the top); and the Drum was on the very brink of feathering away with all his power; when a combination of prodigious sounds was heard outside, and a good-humoured comely woman of some fifty years of age, or thereabouts, came running in, attended by a man bearing a stone pitcher of terrific size, and closely followed by the marrow-bones and cleavers, and the bells; not THE Bells, but a portable collection on a frame.
Church, parson, clerk, beadle, glass-coach, bells, breakfast, bride-cake, favours, marrow-bones, cleavers, and all the rest of the tomfoolery.
Beside this range was a butcher block upon which lay a great cleaver with a keen edge.
Then there were "cleaver men," great giants with muscles of iron; each had two men to attend him--to slide the half carcass in front of him on the table, and hold it while he chopped it, and then turn each piece so that he might chop it once more.
Next, he opened his stall and spread his meat upon the bench, then, taking his cleaver and steel and clattering them together, he trolled aloud in merry tones:
Abdul Aziz, absolute lord of the Ottoman empire--clad in dark green European clothes, almost without ornament or insignia of rank; a red Turkish fez on his head; a short, stout, dark man, black-bearded, black- eyed, stupid, unprepossessing--a man whose whole appearance somehow suggested that if he only had a cleaver in his hand and a white apron on, one would not be at all surprised to hear him say: "A mutton roast today, or will you have a nice porterhouse steak?"
His exact words were: "Sir Thomas Holt hath taken a cleaver and stricken his cook upon the head, so that one side of the head fell upon one shoulder and the other side upon the other shoulder." The defendant was acquitted by instruction of the court, the learned judges holding that the words did not charge murder, for they did not affirm the death of the cook, that being only an inference.
"As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a butcher's cleaver in the other.
Halstead had a long butcher knife and a cleaver. We went out to the outskirts of the city.
Holding this shield before him, Ajax son of Telamon came close up to Hector, and menaced him saying, "Hector, you shall now learn, man to man, what kind of champions the Danaans have among them even besides lion-hearted Achilles cleaver of the ranks of men.
"There goes my chance of promotion," Garthwaite laughed, as a woman bore down on the wounded man, brandishing a butcher's cleaver. "Come on.