lean
Part of speech: verb
noun
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: business
media
printing
publishing
Etymology: From Middle English lenen (“to lean”), from Old English hleonian, hlinian (“to lean, recline, lie down, rest”), from Proto-West Germanic *hlinēn, from Proto-Germanic *hlināną (“to lean, incline”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley-.
Cognate via Proto-Germanic with Middle Dutch leunen (“to lean”), German lehnen (“to lean”); via Proto-Indo-European with climate, cline.
Inflected forms:
form: leans
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: leaning
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: leaned
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: leaned
pos: verb
tags: past
form: leant
pos: verb
tags: UK
participle
past
form: leant
pos: verb
tags: UK
past
form: leans
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: leaner
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: leanest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: a leaning column
She leaned out of the window.
gloss: To incline in opinion or desire; to conform in conduct; often with to, toward, etc.
pos: verb
tags: copulative
examples: I’m leaning towards voting Conservative in the next election.
The Hispanic vote leans Democratic.
But you ſay they do not accept of them, but delight rather to lean to their old Cuſtoms and Brehon Laws, though they be more unjuſt and alſo more inconvenient for the common People, as by your late Relation of them I have gathered.
gloss: To rest or rely, for support, comfort, to use as a hard surface for writing, etc.
pos: verb
examples: He lean'd not on his fathers but himself.
The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.
gloss: To hang outwards.
pos: verb
gloss: To press against.
pos: verb
examples: Oppreſs'd with Anguiſh, panting, and o'reſpent, / His fainting Limbs against an Oak he leant.
gloss: An inclination away from the vertical.
pos: noun
examples: The trees had various leans toward gaps in the canopy.
gloss: Slim; not fleshy.
pos: adj
examples: They will now dedicate several hours at the gym every day to be leaner and stronger.
gloss: Having little fat.
pos: adj
examples: lean steak cuts
The butcher and the porkman painted up only the leanest scrags of meat; the baker, the coarsest of meagre loaves.
gloss: Having little extra or little to spare; scanty; meagre.
pos: adj
examples: a lean budget
a lean harvest
gloss: Having a low proportion or concentration of a desired substance or ingredient.
pos: adj
examples: A lean ore hardly worth mining.
Running on too lean a fuel-air mixture will cause, among other problems, your internal combustion engine to heat up too much.
gloss: Of a character which prevents the compositor from earning the usual wages; opposed to fat.
pos: adj
tags: archaic
examples: lean copy, matter, or type
gloss: Efficient, economic, frugal, agile, slimmed-down; pertaining to the modern industrial principles of "lean manufacturing".
pos: adj
examples: lean management
lean manufacturing
Alcoa is now a lean and agile enterprise, after having split last year into two entities.
Kitting for in-plant handling is unlean. Kitting for transport, on the other hand, is lean; for example, shipping complete sets of parts to make a TV or motorcycle or motor home is lean.
Related words: climate
cline
Derived words: forward-leaning
forward leaning
lean back
lean-back
leaner
lean in
leaning
leaning board
leaning toothpick syndrome
leaning tower illusion
lean into
lean on
lean over backwards
lean-to
lean towards
outlean
overlean
uplean
boneless lean beef trimmings
lean and mean
lean-burn
lean client
lean finely textured beef
leanish
leanly
leanness
lean nitrogen oxide trap
leansome
lean thinking
lean-witted
leany
superlean
ultralean
unlean
Translations: