SPLIT, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive split [G. See Spalt.]

1. To divide longitudinally or lengthwise; to separate a thing from end to end by force; to rive; to cleave; as, to split a piece of timber; to split a board. It differs from crack. To crack is to open or partially separate; to split is to separate entirely.

2. To rend; to tear asunder by violence; to burst; as, to split a rock or a sail.

Cold winter splits the rocks in twain.

3. To divide; to part; as, to split a hair. The phrases to split the heart, to split a ray of light, are now inelegant and obsolete, especially the former. The phrase, to split the earth, is not strictly correct.

4. To dash and break on a rock; as, a ship stranded and split

5. To divide; to break into discord; as a people split into parties.

6. To strain and pain with laughter; as, to split the sides.

SPLIT, verb intransitive

1. To burst; to part asunder; to suffer disruption; as, vessels split by the freezing of water in them. Glass vessels often split when heated too suddenly.

2. To burst with laughter.

Each had a gravity would make you split

3. To be broken; to be dashed to pieces. We were driven upon a rock, and the ship immediately split

To split on a rock, to fail; to err fatally; to have the hopes and designs frustrated.