LEAN • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Lean

Translators

Dictionaries

Courses

Other

Home

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/lin/ Listen

verb

Lean v. t. (past & past part. leant or leaned; pres. part. leaning) To conceal. (Obs.)

Lean v. t. (past & past part. leant or leaned; pres. part. leaning) To cause to lean; to incline; to support or rest. "His fainting limbs against an oak he leant."

Lean v. i. (past & past part. leant or leaned; pres. part. leaning)

To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating; as, she leaned out at the window; a leaning column. "He leant forward."

To incline in opinion or desire; to conform in conduct; with to, toward, etc. "They delight rather to lean to their old customs."

To rest or rely, for support, comfort, and the like; with on, upon, or against. "He leaned not on his fathers but himself."

adjective

Lean adj. (compar. leaner; superl. leanest)

Wanting flesh; destitute of or deficient in fat; slim; not plump; slender; meager; thin; lank; as, a lean body; a lean cattle.

Wanting fullness, richness, sufficiency, or productiveness; deficient in quality or contents; slender; scant; barren; bare; mean; used literally and figuratively; as, the lean harvest; a lean purse; a lean discourse; lean wages. "No lean wardrobe." "Their lean and flashy songs." "What the land is, whether it be fat or lean." "Out of my lean and low ability I'll lend you something."

(Typog.) Of a character which prevents the compositor from earning the usual wages; opposed to fat; as, lean copy, matter, or type.

Synonyms: slender; spare; thin; meager; lank; skinny; gaunt.

noun

Lean n.

That part of flesh which consists principally of muscle without the fat. "The fat was so white and the lean was so ruddy."

(Typog.) Unremunerative copy or work.

See images of 'Lean'

Etymology of 'Lean'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Lean" Quotes from Famous Books

... Chop lean pork somewhat coarsely; butter a pudding dish and line with good paste; put in the pork interspersed with minced onion and hard boiled eggs, cut into bits and sprinkle with pepper, salt, and powdered sage. Now and then dust with flour and drop in a bit of butter. When all the meat is ...

— 365 Luncheon Dishes - A Luncheon Dish for Every Day in the Year • Anonymous

... great deal of taste as well as mastership in order to prevent it from having a certain fragmentary effect. This, in the production of a composer so masterly in musical treatment as Mr. MacDowell, is rather curious, and I have never been able fully to account for it. The disposition to lean on poetic suggestion is very evident in the books of studies already mentioned. For instance, in the opus 46 there are such titles as "Wild Chase," "Elfin Dance," "March Wind"; and in the former book the "Dance of the ...

— The Masters and their Music - A series of illustrative programs with biographical, - esthetical, and critical annotations • W. S. B. Mathews

... treating me that way! What did he do then but lean over the footboard and shake me by the heel. "Turn over," he said; "I want to talk to you,—d'you hear me?" and he ...

— We Ten - Or, The Story of the Roses • Lyda Farrington Kraus

... of the plantation preachers are as simple and humble as those of their people. We give an illustration of one of these homes. Usually there is a division into two or perhaps three rooms. Sometimes a small lean-to is built at the side or end, for use as kitchen. The chimney, erected on the outside, is often constructed of clay bound with sticks. It starts in a broad fireplace of stone, which warms the whole building. ...

— The American Missionary -- Volume 50, No. 05, May, 1896 • Various

... said to him, 'Pay me for good news, gossip; your ass has turned up.' 'That I will, and well, gossip,' said the other; 'but tell us, where has he turned up?' 'In the forest,' said the finder; 'I saw him this morning without pack-saddle or harness of any sort, and so lean that it went to one's heart to see him. I tried to drive him before me and bring him to you, but he is already so wild and shy that when I went near him he made off into the thickest part of the forest. If you have a mind that we two ...

— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

More quotes...