Cleavage
Cleavage , noun
1.
The act of cleaving or splitting.
2.
(Crystallography) 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.
3.
(Geology) Division into lamina, like slate, with the lamination not necessarily parallel to the plane of deposition; -- usually produced by pressure.
Collocations (8)
Basal cleavage , cleavage parallel to the base of a crystal, or to the plane of the lateral axes.
Cubic cleavage , cleavage parallel to the faces of a cube.
Diagonal cleavage , cleavage parallel to ta diagonal plane.
Lateral cleavage , cleavage parallel to the lateral planes.
Octahedral cleavage or Dodecahedral cleavage or Rhombohedral cleavage , cleavage parallel to the faces of an octahedron, dodecahedron, or rhombohedron.
Prismatic cleavage , cleavage parallel to a vertical prism.