Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use cleavage in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun

Cleavage means the act of cleaving or the state of being cleft. Example: “Mineral cleavage is a property of cohesion.”

Examples of cleavage by meaning

nounThe act of cleaving or the state of being cleft.

  • Mineral cleavage is a property of cohesion.1905, Charles Kenneth Leith, “The Observed Relation of Secondary Rock Cleavage to the Parallel Arrangement of Mineral Particles”, in Rock...
  • Accordingly, Wilson defines rock cleavage (and schistosity) as a planar structure, usually distinct from stratification, which permits rocks to be fractured or cleaved into thin slices.1990, N[eville] J. Price, J[ohn] W. Cosgrove, “Rock Cleavage and Other Tectonic Fabrics”, in Analysis of Geological Structures, Cambridge...

nounThe hollow or separation between a woman's breasts, especially as revealed by a low neckline.

  • Low-cut Restoration costumes worn by the Misses Lockwood and Roc (see cut) display too much "cleavage" (Johnston Office trade term for the shadowed depression dividing an actress' bosom into two distinct sections).1946 August 5, “Cinema: Cleavage and the Code”, in Time
  • Wendy thought that her therapist was looking down her cleavage and said so.2003, Chess Denman, Sexuality: A Biopsychosocial Approach, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN
  • All this time I kept my gaze fixed on hers, an enormously difficult task given the gravitational pull exerted by her cleavage.2015, Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, →ISBN

nounAny similar separation between two body parts, such as the buttocks or toes.

  • "That's toe cleavage!"2014, Bridgett M. Davis, Into the Go-Slow, New York, N.Y.: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, →ISBN

nounThe splitting of a large molecule into smaller ones.

  • Carotenoid cleavage oxygenases (CCOs) are a class of enzymes that oxidatively cleave carotenoids into apocarotenoids.2006, E. K. Marasco, K. Vay, C. Schmidt-Dannert, “Identification of Carotenoid Cleavage Oxygenases from Nostoc sp. PCC7120 with Different...

nounThe tendency of a crystal to split along specific planes; schistosity.

  • Notice that cleavage has nothing to do with imperfections in the crystal.1982, Alan Holden, Phylis Morrison, “Cleaving and Gliding Crystals”, in Crystals and Crystal Growing, Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT Press...

nounThe division of voters into voting blocs.

  • A division between voting blocs is called a cleavage and because voting blocs are impermanent, dominant cleavages are always changing.2011, Scot Schraufnagel, “Voting bloc”, in Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress, Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, →ISBN, page 235

More sentences with cleavage

  • In the end, she went with a simple white jumpsuit, with just a bit of cleavage.2012, Bryce Anderson, The Improbable Rise of Singularity Girl, Banned Sorcery Books, →ISBN. From the entry futurey
  • This is supported by the disappearance of cracks and cleavages in feldspars that suffered adularization.2007, Mrs. Gambold, The American Journal of Science. From the entry adularization
  • In that wicked little black silk camisole that shows a tantalizing hint of cleavage?1996, Andrea Young, Wicked in Silk, London: Scarlet, →ISBN, page 214. From the entry milkmaidy
  • It has stayed open-necked since, but these days Cummings wears his shirts with more heavage (male cleavage) on show.2019 September 13, Hannah Jane Parkinson, “Canvas of lies: what Dominic Cummings' dress sense tells us about Brexit”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry heavage
  • The guy on the subway who took a creepshot of my cleavage of his phone, making nausea spill over my insides.2015, Sarah Hepola, Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget, Grand Central Publishing, →ISBN. From the entry creepshot
  • Altogether, cathelicidins comprise an N-terminal cathelin domain and a C-terminal cationic antimicrobial domain, which is activated upon cleavage.2015 April 2, Babatunji Emmanuel Oyinloye et al., “Reactive Oxygen Species, Apoptosis, Antimicrobial Peptides and Human Inflammatory…. From the entry cathelin
  • Of particular significance to our discussion has been the recent discovery of the phosphorylytic cleavage of the nucleotide phosphodiesters of RNA.2013, F. M. Burnet, W. M. Stanley, General Virology: Biochemical, Biological, and Biophysical Properties, →ISBN. From the entry phosphorylytic
  • Isoprenylation is followed by cleavage of the AAX amino acid residues and, in some cases, by additional proteolytic cuts.2013, Edward E Pryor Jr, Peter S Horanyi, Kathleen M Clark, Nadia Fedoriw, Sara M Connelly, Mary Koszelak-Rosenblum, Guangyu Zhu, Michael…. From the entry AAX
  • For cleavage of picornavirus polyproteins, such initial nucleation raises no problem for the first schizomer in the sequence (structural protein).2012, H. Fraenkel-Conrat, Regulation and Genetics: Genetics of Animal Viruses, →ISBN, page 181. From the entry schizomer
  • I have cleavage and a working phone!2012 October 18, Jennifer Byrne, “No Myspace Angles!”, in Fake It: More Than 100 Shortcuts Every Woman Needs to Know, Simon and Schuster…. From the entry MySpace angle
  • Yet the tensions related to the centre-periphery cleavage have always remained the basis of the political action of the leaguists.2004, Lieven De Winter, Huri Tursan, Regionalist Parties in Western Europe. From the entry leaguist
  • Obsessed with Heidi's cleavage, the pervert within may start thinking with his little head instead of his big one.2003 May 9, Dalton Ross, “Rumble in the Jungle”, in Entertainment Weekly, archived from the original on 14 Feb 2009, retrieved 10 Jan 2010. From the entry think with one's little head
  • During cleavage these plasms become compartmentalized into different blastomeres which in turn give rise to the various cell lines.2000, Kay Elder, Brian Dale, In Vitro Fertilization, Cambridge University Press, page 83. From the entry plasm
  • The final disentanglement of sister chromatids can only be achieved by cleavage of the "gordian knot" by separin.2000 May 26, Kim Nasmyth et al., “Splitting the Chromosome: Cutting the Ties That Bind Sister Chromatids”, in Science, volume 288, number…. From the entry gordian
  • He said his name was K.D. and tried hard to enjoy her face as much as her cleavage while he talked.1997, Toni Morrison, Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf; republished New York, N.Y.: Vintage International, Vintage Books, March…. From the entry baked Alaska
  • Her head was covered with a green and yellow bandhani chunni which was tucked into the cleavage of her blouse.1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 1. From the entry chunni
  • Essentially a “robot chemist", the sequenator or sequencer carries out the coupling, wash, cleavage, and extraction steps of the cycle.1994, Roger L. Lundblad, Techniques in Protein Modification, →ISBN, page 40. From the entry sequenator
  • This reaction is coupled to the pyrophosphorylytic cleavage of ATP.1981, The Enzymes: Nucleic acids - Volume 14, Part 1, →ISBN, page 35. From the entry pyrophosphorylytic
  • Acteon found the air hostess trying to pull on her damasse dress and realign cleavage in the gentleboys' bog.1980, Ian Kennedy Martin, The Last Crime, page 9. From the entry gentleboy
  • Mica is valuable because of its perfect cleavage, transparency, elasticity, non-conductivity of heat and electricity, resistance to decomposition, and non-inflammability.1918, “Economic Relations and Military Uses of Materials”, in Herbert E[rnest] Gregory, editor, Military Geology and Topography: A…. From the entry isinglass
  • I feel the same way about Ashley Monroe too, who was her usual sweet self as she came through serving cleavage to the max.2016, Delores Shante, “Tiffany Foxx’s Black Friday”, in The St. Louis American, archived from the original on 07 Feb 2021. From the entry serve
  • In the sharper light of his hotel room, the woman's skin looked overpowdered; her bra was push-up, a pendant nestled in the cleavage.2015, Robin Kirman, Bradstreet Gate: A Novel, Crown, →ISBN. From the entry push-up
  • Briefly, the assay relies on a proluminescent caspase substrate, which contains the tetrapeptide cleavage sequence VEID for caspase-6 and DEVD for caspases-3 and -7.2015 October 28, “Sox11 Reduces Caspase-6 Cleavage and Activity”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry proluminescent
  • Excessive pressures can present some complex problems such as punch and die fractures, slip cracks and cleavage fractures in the green part.2014 April 17, Michael Russo, “Understanding the Powdered Metal Process: Spotlight on Compacting”, in National Bronze, archived from the…. From the entry green
  • Gregg, a size 18, famously posted an image of herself in a striped “fatkini” last spring — deep cleavage, non-skinny legs and all.2013 February 1, Jennifer Barger, “Curve Appeal”, in The Washington Post. From the entry fatkini
  • The ideal candidate for a makeunder does all three of these simultaneously, mostly likely while upending a bottle of perfume into her cleavage.2011 October 18, Anna Lefler, The Chicktionary: From A-line to Z-snap, the words every woman should know, Adams Media, →ISBN, page 122. From the entry makeunder
  • "For cleavage to show up in these photos, a girl has to have C-cup breasts — at least that's what they told me once."2010, Tom Clancy, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Books 1-6, page 1149. From the entry cup
  • Other women — human and alien alike — wear sheer, light, revealing outfits, exposing skin (pink, brown, or green), mid-drifts, ample cleavage, and rear ends.2009, Michael Hemmingson, Star Trek: A Post-structural Critique of the Original Series, Wildside Press, page 53. From the entry mid-drift
  • A cunning (but comfortable) piece of stiff bodicing showed off more cleavage than she was used to, and emphasized her narrow waist and curvaceous hips.1998, Maxine Barry, Dark Desire, London: Scarlet, →ISBN, page 246. From the entry bodicing
  • The species that reacts with the nucleophile is not the substrate but the aryl radical deriving from its anion radical by cleavage of the nucleofugic group.1991, Advances in Physical Organic Chemistry, volume 26, page 2. From the entry nucleofugic
  • Cleavage and folds are imprinted are overprinted by the contact metamorphic aureole, indicating that they belong to a pre-intrustive episode of rock deformation and accompanying regional deformation.1990, Roger Mason, Petrology of the Metamorphic Rocks, Chapter 3: "Metamorphism associated with igneous intrusions". From the entry aureole

Meaning of cleavage

  1. noun The act of cleaving or the state of being cleft.
  2. noun The hollow or separation between a woman's breasts, especially as revealed by a low neckline.
  3. noun Any similar separation between two body parts, such as the buttocks or toes.

Full definition of cleavage

Questions about cleavage in a sentence

How do you use cleavage in a sentence?
Cleavage is used as a noun. For example: “Mineral cleavage is a property of cohesion.”
What is a short sentence with cleavage?
“"That's toe cleavage!"”
What does cleavage mean?
Cleavage means the act of cleaving or the state of being cleft.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cleavage (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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