cloven (root: cleave)

• POS: Adjective, Verb (usu participle)
• HYPHEN: clo=ven

CIDE DICTIONARY

cloven, p. p. & a. 

 from Cleave, v. t.  [1913 Webster]

To show the cloven foot or To show the cloven hoof, to reveal a devilish character, or betray an evil purpose, notwithstanding disguises, -- Satan being represented dramatically and symbolically as having cloven hoofs.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

cloven, adj. split, partly divided.

Idiom

cloven hoof (or foot) the divided hoof of ruminant quadrupeds (e.g. oxen, sheep, goats); also ascribed to the god Pan, and so to the Devil. show the cloven hoof reveal one's evil nature.

Derivative

cloven-footed adj. cloven-hoofed adj.

Etymology

past part. of CLEAVE(1)

THESAURUS

cloven

bifurcated, bisected, branched, branching, chinky, cleft, cracked, cut, dehiscent, dichotomous, dimidiate, divided, fissured, fissury, forked, forking, gaping, gappy, halved, in pieces, in shreds, lacerate, lacerated, mangled, mutilated, quartered, ragged, ramified, rent, rift, rimose, rimulose, riven, severed, shredded, slit, splintered, split, tattered, torn

ROGET THESAURUS

cloven

bisection

N bisection, bipartition, dichotomy, subdichotomy, halving, dimidiation, bifurcation, forking, branching, ramification, divarication, fork, prong, fold, half, moiety, bisected, cloven, cleft, bipartite, biconjugate, bicuspid, bifid, bifurcous, bifurcate, bifurcated, distichous, dichotomous, furcular, semi-, demi-, hemi.