cleaver

See also: Cleaver

English

Etymology

From Middle English clevere, equivalent to cleave +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈklivɚ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːvə(ɹ)

Noun

A cleaver.

cleaver (plural cleavers)

1. A squarish, heavy knife used by butchers for hacking through bones, etc.
   • 1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC:

     When he came to Nottingham, he entered that part of the market where butchers stood, and took up his inn in the best place he could find. 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:...

   • 1946, Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan:

     Concurrently with Flay's visualization of the cleaver falling—the cleaver fell.

2. (music, Bahamas) A type of clave, or rhythm stick, a concussive musical instrument used in traditional Bahamian music.
3. (figurative) The act of eliminating someone or something, especially when done by someone with a history of other eliminations; a dismissal, rejection, or removal.

   Synonym: axe

   • 2017 May 13, Barney Ronay, “Antonio Conte’s brilliance has turned Chelsea’s pop-up team into champions”, in the Guardian‎^[1]:

     Conte has broken the mould further with the suggestion he might escape the Abramovich cleaver, becoming the first of his line to leave by his own volition.

4. (rowing) A type of oar blade with an asymmetric, mostly rectangular shape that resembles a cleaving knife.

Usage notes

As a musical instrument, cleaver is normally used only in the plural, just like the more common synonym claves, which is far more often used internationally and is better known as a part of Cuban music. In the Bahamas, cleavers is the more common terminology.

Related terms

• cleave
• pole cleaver

Translations

a squarish knife used for hacking

• Afrikaans: hakmes
• Albanian: hanxhar (sq) m, satër (sq) m
• Arabic: سَاطُور m (sāṭūr)

  Moroccan Arabic: شقور m (šəqur)

• Aragonese: gotiel m
• Armenian: հերձիչ (herjičʻ), ճեղքող (čeġkʻoġ)
• Azerbaijani: çapacaq (az), ət baltası
• Belarusian: дровокол m (drovokol)
• Bengali: কাটারী (kaṭari)
• Bulgarian: сатъ́р (bg) m (satǎ́r)
• Burmese: ခုတ်ဓားမ (hkutdha:ma.)
• Catalan: fulla de carnisser f
• Cebuano: puthaw
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 菜刀 (coi³ dou¹)

  Mandarin: 菜刀 (zh) (càidāo), 砍肉刀 (kǎnròudāo)

• Czech: sekáček (cs) m
• Danish: kødøkse c
• Dutch: mes (nl) n, hakmes (nl) n
• Esperanto: viandohakilo
• Estonian: lihakirves, lihalõikamisnuga
• Finnish: lihakirves (fi) (meat cleaver)
• French: fendoir (fr) m, couperet (fr) m
• Georgian: საკვეთელა (saḳvetela)
• German: Hackbeil n, Cleaver (de) m
• Greek: μπαλτάς (el) m (baltás)

  Ancient: κοπίς f (kopís)

• Guaraní: kyse (gn)
• Haitian Creole: koupre
• Hebrew: קוֹפִיץ (he) m (kufitz)
• Hindi: विदारक (hi) m (vidārak)
• Hungarian: hentesbárd (hu)
• Irish: scian bhúistéara f
• Italian: mannarino m
• Japanese: 包丁 (ja) (ほうちょう, hōchō)
• Kannada: ಸೀಳುಗ (sīḷuga)
• Kazakh: кливер (kliver)
• Khmer: ប៉័ងតោ (km) (pangtao)
• Korean: 클리버 (keullibeo)
• Lao: ປັງຕໍ (pang tǭ)
• Lithuanian: kapoklė f
• Lombard: folciott m
• Lü: please add this translation if you can
• Luxembourgish: Beilen n
• Macanese: parám
• Macedonian: сатар m (satar)
• Malagasy: famaky (mg), antsibe (mg)
• Malayalam: പിളർത്തിക്കൊണ്ട് (piḷaṟttikkoṇṭŭ)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: заазуур (mn) (zaazuur)

  Mongolian: ᠵᠠᠭᠠᠵᠤᠤᠷ (ǰaɣaǰuur)

• Norman: (Jersey) hachot m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kjøttøks m or f

  Nynorsk: kjøttøks f

• Ottoman Turkish: ساطور (satır)
• Pashto: سمت چاړه
• Persian: ساتور (fa) (sâtur)
• Polish: tasak (pl) m
• Portuguese: cutelo (pt) m
• Romanian: satâr (ro) m
• Russian: большо́й нож мясника́ m (bolʹšój nož mjasniká), нож для нареза́ния мя́са m (nož dlja narezánija mjása), сека́ч (ru) m (sekáč)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: са̀тара f, ме̏сарска сјѐкира f

  Roman: sàtara (sh) f, mȅsarska sjèkira f

• Sicilian: mannara (scn) f
• Sindhi: ڦٽائيندڙ
• Sinhalese: සයිස් වල (sayis wala)
• Slovak: sekáčik m
• Somali: jeexa
• Spanish: cuchilla (es) f
• Sundanese: kujang
• Swahili: pambazua
• Swedish: köttyxa (sv) c, hackkniv c
• Tagalog: puthaw
• Tajik: донаву (tg) (donavu)
• Tamil: வெட்டுக் (veṭṭuk)
• Telugu: క్లీవర్ (klīvar)
• Thai: ปังตอ (th) (bpang dtor)
• Tibetan: ཚའི་ཏོའོ (tsha'i to'o), ཚལ་གྲི (tshal gri)
• Turkish: satır (tr)
• Ukrainian: дровокол m (drovokol)
• Uzbek: yoruvchi
• Vietnamese: thợ chẻ
• Walloon: hatchåd (wa) m, findrece (wa) f
• White Hmong: please add this translation if you can
• Zhuang: please add this translation if you can