lean

• enPR: lēn, IPA^(key): /liːn/

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• Rhymes: -iːn
• Homophone: lien

From Middle English lenen (“to lean”), from Old English hleonian, hlinian (“to lean, recline, lie down, rest”), from Proto-Germanic *hlinjaną (“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.

lean (third-person singular simple present leans, present participle leaning, simple past and past participle leaned or (UK) leant)

1. To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating.

   a leaning column

   She leaned out of the window.

2. To incline in opinion or desire; to conform in conduct; with to, toward, etc.

   I'm leaning towards voting Conservative in the next election.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Edmund Spenser

     They delight rather to lean to their old customs.

3. To rest or rely, for support, comfort, etc.; with on, upon, or against.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Alfred Tennyson

     He leaned not on his fathers but himself.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 23, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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.

4. To hang outwards.
5. To press against.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

     His fainting limbs against an oak he leant.

• forward-leaning
• lean back
• leaning
• lean on
• lean-to

• climate
• cline

lean (plural leans)

1. (of an object taller than its width and depth) An inclination away from the vertical.

   The trees had various leans toward gaps in the canopy.

• (inclination away from vertical): tilt

From Middle English lene (“lean”), from Old English hlǣne (“lean”), (cognate with Low German leen), perhaps from hlǣnan (“to cause to lean (due to hunger or lack of food)”), from Proto-Germanic *hlainijaną (“to cause to lean”). If so, then related to Old English hlinian, hleonian (“to lean”).

lean (comparative leaner, superlative leanest)

1. (of a person or animal) Slim; not fleshy.

   Synonyms: lithe, svelte, willowy; see also Thesaurus:slender

2. (of meat) Having little fat.

   lean steak cuts

3. Having little extra or little to spare; scanty; meagre.

   Synonyms: insufficient, scarce, sparse; see also Thesaurus:inadequate

   a lean budget

   a lean harvest

4. Having a low proportion or concentration of a desired substance or ingredient.

   Synonyms: deficient, dilute, poor

   Antonym: rich

   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.

5. (printing, archaic) Of a character which prevents the compositor from earning the usual wages; opposed to fat.

   lean copy, matter, or type

6. (business) Efficient, economic, frugal, agile, slimmed-down; pertaining to the modern industrial principles of "lean manufacturing"

   lean management

   lean manufacturing

   Alcoa is now a lean and agile enterprise, after having split last year into two entities.

• leanness
• leansome

lean (uncountable)

1. Meat with no fat on it.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Traditional rhyme

     Jack Sprat would eat no fat, / His wife would eat no lean.

lean (third-person singular simple present leans, present participle leaning, simple past and past participle leaned)

1. To thin out (a fuel-air mixture): to reduce the fuel flow into the mixture so that there is more air or oxygen.
   • 1938 July, Blaine and Dupont Miller, “Weather Hop”, in Boy's Life‎, Boy Scouts of America, ISSN 0006-8608, page 25:

     He leaned the mixture in an effort to cause a backfire through the carburetor, the generally accepted method of breaking the ice loose.

   • 2002 July, Tom Benenson, “Can Your Engine Run Too Lean?”, in Flying‎, volume 129, number 7, ISSN 0015-4806, page 73:

     Even the Pilot's Operating Handbooks (POH) for our training airplanes add to our paranoia with their insistence that we not lean the mixture until we're above 5000 feet density altitude.

From Icelandic leyna? Akin to German leugnen (“deny”). Compare lie (“speak falsely”).

lean (third-person singular simple present leans, present participle leaning, simple past and past participle leaned)

1. To conceal.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ray to this entry?)

Probably from the verb to lean (see etymology 1 above), supposedly because consumption of the intoxicating beverage causes one to "lean".

lean (uncountable)

1. (slang, US) A recreational drug based on codeine-laced promethazine cough syrup, popular in the hip hop community in the southeastern United States.
   • 2005, Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, and Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), “Stay Fly”, in Most Known Unknown‎, Sony BMG, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG):

     Eyes real tight 'cause I'm chokin' the creep; vision messed up 'cause I'm drinkin' the lean.

• sizzurp, syrup
• purple drank

• lean on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• lean in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• lean in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• ELAN, Lane, Lena, Nale, Neal, elan, enal, lane, nale, neal, élan

lean

1. third-person plural present subjunctive of ler

From Old Irish lenaid (“stays, sticks (to), follows”), from Proto-Celtic *linati (“stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ley- (“slimy”); compare Latin linō (“anoint”), līmus (“mud, slime”), Sanskrit लिनाति (lināti, “sticks, stays”).

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /lʲan̪ˠ/
• (Connacht, Ulster) IPA^(key): /l̠ʲanˠ/, /l̠ʲan̪ˠ/

lean (present analytic leanann, future analytic leanfaidh, verbal noun leanúint, past participle leanta)

1. (transitive, intransitive) follow
   1. continue; remain, endure

• Alternative verbal noun: leanacht (Cois Fharraige)

• leantóir

• "lean" in Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
• “lenaid” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /ˈlea̯n/

lean

1. inflection of leat:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. past indicative connegative

• IPA^(key): /ˈlæːɑn/

From Proto-Germanic *launą, from a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *leh₂u- (“catch, plunder, profit”). Cognate with Old Frisian lān, Old Saxon lōn, Dutch loon, Old High German lōn (German Lohn), Old Norse laun (Swedish lön), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌿𐌽 (laun). The Indo-European root is also the source of Ancient Greek λεία (leía) (from *λαϝία), Latin lucrum, Old Church Slavonic ловъ (lovŭ) (Russian лов (lov)), Old Irish lóg, Lithuanian lãvinti.

lēan n

1. reward

   "Heard weorc is his āgen lēan," cwæþ se hlāford tō þām þēowe.

   "Hard work is its own reward," said the master to the slave.

• lēanian

From Proto-Germanic *lahaną. Cognate with Old Saxon lahan, Old High German lahan, Old Norse lá, Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌰𐌽 (laian).

lēan

1. (transitive) to blame, fault, reproach

• Middle English: *lēen (attested in past tense lough)

From Old Irish lenaid (“stays, sticks (to), follows”), from Proto-Celtic *linati (“stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ley- (“slimy”); compare Latin linō (“anoint”), Sanskrit लिनाति (lināti, “sticks, stays”).

• IPA^(key): /ʎɛn/

lean (past lean, future leanaidh, verbal noun leantainn or leanmhainn, past participle leanta)

1. follow
2. continue, proceed

   An lean an droch aimsir? ― Will the bad weather continue?

• fo-leantach (“subjunctive”)
• lean air (“continue”)
• ainlean (“persecute”)

lean

1. Second-person plural (ustedes) imperative form of leer.
2. Second-person plural (ustedes) present subjunctive form of leer.
3. Third-person plural (ellos, ellas, also used with ustedes^?) present subjunctive form of leer.

lean n (plural leanen, diminutive leantsje)

1. wage, wages, salary
2. reward

• “lean”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011