glean
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
government
military
natural-sciences
politics
war
zoology
Etymology: The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenen (“to gather (heads of grain left by reapers), glean; to gather (things) together, collect”), from Old French glener, glainer (modern French glaner (“to gather, glean”)), from Late Latin glen(n)are, the present active infinitive of glen(n)ō (“to make a collection”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *glanos (“clean; clear”, adjective), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰleh₁- (“to glow, shine; to be glowing or shining”).
The noun is derived from Late Middle English glene (“collection of heads of grain gathered by gleaning; head of grain”), from Old French glene, glane (“act of gleaning; legal right to glean”) (modern French glane (“act of gleaning”)), from glener, glainer (verb): see above.
Cognate with Medieval Latin glana, glena (“bundle of ears of grain”).
Inflected forms:
form: gleans
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: gleaning
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: gleaned
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: gleaned
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: glean
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: glean
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: gleaned
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: glean
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: gleanest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: gleaned
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: gleanedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: gleans
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: gleaneth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: gleaned
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: glean
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: gleaned
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: glean
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: gleaned
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: glean
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: gleaning
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: gleaned
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
Senses:
gloss: To collect (fruit, grain, or other produce) from a field, an orchard, etc., after the main gathering or harvest.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: So holy, and ſo perfect is my loue, / And I in ſuch a pouerty of grace, / That I ſhall thinke it a moſt plenteous crop / To gleane the broken eares after the man / That the maine harueſt reapes: […]
And thou ſhalt not gleane thy vineyard, neither ſhalt thou gather euery grape of thy vineyard; thou ſhalt leaue them for the poore and ſtranger: I am the Lord your God.
And Ruth the Moabiteſſe ſaide vnto Naomi, Let me now goe to the field, and gleane eares of corne after him, in whoſe ſight I ſhall finde grace.
And thus ſhe vvent compell'd / By ſtrong neceſſity, vvith as ſerene, / And pleas'd a look as patience can put on, / To glean Palæmon's fields.
He [the Calydonian boar] ruined vineyards lying in the sun, / After his harvesting the men must glean / What he had left; right glad they had not been / Among the tall stalks of the ripening wheat, / The fell destroyer's fatal tusks to meet.
Some harvest loss was gleaned by animals, although little information is available on the proportion of harvest loss gleaned and no hard data is available on the quantity. Academic researchers told us that as much as one-third of the corn lost in harvest was gleaned.
gloss: To gather (something, now chiefly something intangible such as experience or information) in small amounts over a period of time, often with some difficulty; to scrape together.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: [Ferdinand] Magellan ſoone after ſailes yet more South, and paſſes that Fretum or ſtrait, vvith more reaſon called Magellan, a hundred others haue ſince that gleaned ſeueral additions of Titles and nevv names their diſtributed.
In the Knovvledge of Bodies, vve muſt be content to glean vvhat vve can from particular Experiments, ſince vve cannot from a Diſcovery of their real Eſſences, graſp at a time vvhole Sheaves; and in Bundles, comprehend the Nature and Properties of vvhole Species together.
It is entertaining to obſerve hovv the ſeveral little Springs and Rills, that break out of the Sides of the Mountain, are glean'd up, and convey'd thro' little cover'd Channels into the main Hollovv of the Aqueduct.
By Jay'd! ay, that's another Excellence of the Don's; he does not only glean up all the Bad VVords of other Authors, but makes nevv Bad VVords of his ovvn.
Nor did he pass unmov'd the gentle scene, / For many a joy could he from Night's soft presence glean.
Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling fagots burn, / While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return / To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn.
All thy joys from earth thou gleanest / From things basest and obscenest, […]
The shards, the shards of the sword, that thou gleanedst for my sake / In the night on the field of slaughter, in the tide when my father fell, / Hast thou kept them through sorrow and joyance? has thou warded them trusty and well? / Where hast thou laid them, my mother?
[August] Strindberg went to Stockholm, where for a few months he gleaned a living from newspaper work; but in the summer he went to a remote island in Bothnia Bay, where in his twenty-third year he wrote his great historical drama, Master Olof.
He [Amir Ali Hajizadeh] said Iran was "well aware of what priceless technological information" could be gleaned from the aircraft.
gloss: To take away (someone's) possessions; to strip (someone) bare.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
gloss: Of an animal, especially a bat or a bird: to feed by picking up or plucking (prey, mainly arthropods such as insects) from various places.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: Frigate birds glean a portion of their livelihood from the host of creatures which live at the surface of the ocean: flying-fishes, ctenophores, jelly-fishes, velela, janthina, and in fact anything that may attract their fancy. I even observed one bird aimlessly carrying a splinter of wood, uncertain of its utility, yet unwilling to release it.
Seen traveling and foraging in noisy flocks of 5 to 30 or more birds, gleaning insects, eggs, and larvae from shrubs and trees.
gloss: To collect or gather (things) into one mass.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
obsolete
transitive
examples: Such ſlender arguments be gleaneth together agaynſt vs, ſeeking bye matters. But what ſhould he do? elſe ſhould he haue nought to furniſhe his counterblaſt withall.
Yes, that goodneſſe / Of gleaning all the Lands vvealth into one, / Into your ovvne hands (Card'nall) by Extortion: […]
gloss: To cut off (straggling soldiers separated from their units) during a conflict; to isolate.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
obsolete
transitive
examples: And they turned and fled toward the wilderneſſe vnto the rocke of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the high wayes fiue thouſand men: and purſued hard after them vnto Gidom, and ſlew two thouſand men of them.
gloss: To collect fruit, grain, or other produce after the main gathering or harvest.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Put nat your horſes in to the corne felde yet for my folkes haue nat gleaned there yet: […]
In harvest tyme, whilest she myght goo and glyne; / And wher stoore was stroyed with the flodd / Then well awaye! for she undone was clene.
And ſhe [Ruth] ſaid, I pray you, let mee gleane and gather after the reapers amongſt the ſheaues: […]
Offer thy ſelfe to God then, as Primitas ſpicarium [the first grain of corn], vvhether thou gleaneſt in the vvorld, or bindeſt up by vvhole ſheaves; vvhether thine increaſe be by little and little, or thou be rich at once, by the devolution of a rich inheritance and patrimony unto thee.
Alſo it hath been ſaid, that by the common law and cuſtom of England the poor are allovved to enter and glean upon another's ground after the harveſt, vvithout being guilty of treſpaſs: vvhich humane proviſion ſeems borrovved from the moſaical lavv.
gloss: Of an animal, especially a bat or a bird: to feed by picking up or plucking prey, mainly arthropods such as insects, from various places.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: On migration, it [the Wilson's warbler (Cardellina pusilla)] appears as a sunny flash of gold in roadside shrubs or swamp thickets, refueling on insects gleaned from leaves or caught in midair forays.
The species [Keen's myotis (Myotis keenii)] takes flying and non-flying prey, suggesting it gleans as well as hawking; it has been observed hunting over water.
Derived words: gleanable
gleaned
gleaner
gleaning
ungleaned
Translations:
lang: Asturian
word: apelucar
lang: Breton
word: pennaouiñ
lang: Bulgarian
word: баберкувам
roman: baberkuvam
lang: Catalan
word: espigolar
lang: Czech
word: paběrkovat
lang: Dutch
word: inzamelen
lang: Dutch
word: oppikken
lang: Dutch
word: oprapen
lang: Dutch
word: sprokkelen
lang: Finnish
word: poimia
lang: Finnish
word: poimia tähkiä
lang: Finnish
word: tehdä jälkikorjuu
lang: French
word: glaner
lang: Galician
word: espigar
lang: German
word: nachlesen
lang: German
word: schnorren
lang: Irish
word: tiomsaigh
lang: Italian
word: racimolare
lang: Italian
word: spigolare
lang: Latin
word: racēmor
lang: Māori
word: hamu
lang: Māori
word: ketu
lang: Māori
word: pātoke
lang: Māori
word: rautami
lang: Portuguese
word: catar
lang: Portuguese
word: respigar
lang: Russian
word: подбира́ть
roman: podbirátʹ
lang: Russian
word: подобра́ть
roman: podobrátʹ
lang: Russian
word: собира́ть
roman: sobirátʹ
lang: Russian
word: собра́ть
roman: sobrátʹ
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: па̀бӣрчити
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: pàbīrčiti
lang: Spanish
word: espigar
lang: Spanish
word: pepenar
lang: Swedish
word: efterskörda
lang: Tày
word: bón
lang: Telugu
word: గింజలేరు
roman: giñjalēru
lang: Turkish
word: ekin toplamak
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: اوزدكلمك
roman: özdeklemek
lang: Ukrainian
word: підбирати
roman: pidbyraty
lang: Ukrainian
word: визбирувати
roman: vyzbyruvaty
lang: Ukrainian
word: збирати
roman: zbyraty
lang: Vietnamese
word: mót
lang: Zazaki
word: arêdayen
lang: Finnish
word: poimia
lang: Finnish
word: siepata