Cleavage

Cleavage may refer to:

Science

 * Cleavage (crystal), the way in which a crystal or mineral tends to split
 * Cleavage (embryo), the division of cells in an early embryo
 * Cleavage (geology), foliation of rock perpendicular to stress, a result of ductile deformation
 * Cleave (fiber), a controlled break in an optical fiber
 * Bond cleavage, in chemistry and biochemistry, the splitting of chemical bonds
 * Cleavage factor, a protein complex that helps cleave of a newly synthesized pre-messenger RNA (mRNA)
 * Cleavage furrow, in cell biology, the indentation that begins the process of cleavage, by which animal cells undergo cytokinesis
 * Proteolysis, also called peptide cleavage, the breaking down of proteins

Anatomy

 * Cleavage (breasts), the partial exposure of breasts or their intervening gap.
 * Buttock cleavage, the minor exposure of the buttocks and the gluteal cleft between them
 * Toe cleavage, the partial exposure of toes in shoes
 * Teeth cleavage or tooth cleavage, slang for diastema, the gap between a person's two front teeth

Other uses

 * Cleavage (politics), the divisions of society that cause people to vote differently