Definition of cleavage
- n. - The act of cleaving or splitting.
- n. - The quality possessed by many crystallized substances of
splitting readily in one or more definite directions, in which the
cohesive attraction is a minimum, affording more or less smooth
surfaces; the direction of the dividing plane; a fragment obtained by
cleaving, as of a diamond. See Parting.
- n. - Division into laminae, like slate, with the lamination
not necessarily parallel to the plane of deposition; -- usually
produced by pressure.