noun

cleaver

KLEEV

noun

A heavy, wide-bladed knife used mainly by butchers for chopping through meat and bone.

"The butcher brought the cleaver down hard to split the ribs."

"He kept a well-worn cleaver hanging above the chopping block."

How to Use Cleaver

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishA big, heavy kitchen knife made for hacking through tough meat or bone, not for fine slicing.

Common pairings

a butcher's cleaver meat cleaver swing a cleaver

cleavers plural, Cleavers plural

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Can you complete this real example?

The butcher brought the _____ down hard to split the ribs.

Formed from "cleave" (to split) plus the agent suffix "-er" — literally "a thing that cleaves."

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