Many of us have known the word "cleft" since school days. This is a fairly common definition, which, as a rule, describes a forest clearing, a place free of trees and thickets. It is often found in children's tales and poems, textbooks on natural history and geography.
Progalin in the literature
The glade is a cleared place, free from all that grows around it. Most often, it is in the direct sense that word is used. The most common meaning of this term refers to the theme of the forest and any thickets. In the literature we often read about the forest glade. Thickets of trees, sometimes dense and impassable, part sooner or later, giving the place a cozy lawn, sunlit. Often poets and writers resort to this image to emphasize certain twists in the plot. The word, filled with imagery, sets the necessary accents. Therefore, in old tales, some iconic character often settles on the clearing, whether it be Baba Yaga (by the way, not always only evil, sometimes wise) or a sorceress who helps the protagonist. The protagonist passes through the impassable thicket, symbolizing the difficulties he overcomes, and finally he is taken into the arms by a clean and bright clearing. This place is a symbol of the search for the right path, a symbol of hope for the resolution of litigation, and not just a topographical definition. Not in vain in order to emphasize the sign of a fateful meeting, writers use such a widespread and capacious turn as a forest glade.
What do dictionaries say?
Philologists interpret this term quite definitely, giving the concept of a clearing as a cleared place. In addition to the most common meaning, this definition can mean a gap between clouds in the sky, an undeveloped area. Sometimes a glade is even called a bald head. By the way, it is in the latter sense that this term is most often found in crosswords.
Portable values
But at the same time, any dictionary makes it clear that this word can be used in a figurative meaning. For example, this term can be found in jurisprudence. It means a partial or complete absence of the necessary legal norms in any project.
This word is often used in science. In this context, the gap is the lack of the necessary knowledge or data in any issue, an information gap.
As you can see, other meanings of the word are similar to the original in the broad sense and mean the same free place.