lean

• enPR: lēn, IPA^(key): /liːn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːn
• Homophone: lien

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.

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

1. (intransitive) 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. (copulative) To incline in opinion or desire; to conform in conduct; often with to, toward, etc.

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

   The Hispanic vote leans Democratic.

   • a. 1600, Edmund Spenser, “A View of the State of Ireland. […]”, in The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser, volume VI, London: Jacob Tonson […], published 1715, →OCLC, page 1518:

     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.

3. (Followed by against, on, or upon) To rest or rely, for support, comfort, etc.
   • 1864, Alfred Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 54:

     He lean'd not on his fathers but himself.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, pages 374–375:

     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.
   • 1697, Virgil, “The Tenth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 533, lines 1187–1188:

     Oppreſs'd with Anguiſh, panting, and o'reſpent, / His fainting Limbs against an Oak he leant.

• 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)

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

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

   • 2024 January 5, ZacharyFurr, “Gym types”, in The In Constant Chronicles‎^[1]:

     They will now dedicate several hours at the gym every day to be leaner and stronger.

3. (of meat) Having little fat.

   lean steak cuts

   • 2007, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Penguin, →ISBN, page 34:

     The butcher and the porkman painted up only the leanest scrags of meat; the baker, the coarsest of meagre loaves.

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

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

   a lean budget

   a lean harvest

5. 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.

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

   lean copy, matter, or type

7. (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.

   • 2007, Richard J. Schonberger, Best Practices in Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement, page 204:

     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.

lean (countable and uncountable, plural leans)

1. (uncountable) Meat with no fat on it.
   • 1639, or earlier, Anon: Jack Sprat:

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

2. (countable, biology) An organism that is lean in stature.
   • 1986, Southwest Fisheries Center (U.S.), Collected Reprints (issue 1)

     The intermediates and leans are the predominant morphotypes found at the SE-NHR seamounts […]

   • 2012, Obesity: New Insights for the Healthcare Professional, page 56:

     Obese Zuckers, compared to leans, consumed more food under free-feeding conditions.

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

2. To thin out (a fuel-air mixture): to reduce the fuel flow into the mixture so that there is more air or oxygen.

   Synonyms: derich, disenrich

   Antonym: enrich

   • 1938 July, Harold Blaine Miller, Dupont Miller, “Weather Hop”, in Boys' Life‎^[2], Boy Scouts of America, →ISSN, 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^[3], volume 129, number 7, →ISSN, 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. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) To conceal.^[1]

Probably from the verb to lean (see etymology 1 above), supposedly because consumption of the intoxicating beverage causes one to "lean". Alternatively, possibly short for gasoline (“an alcoholic beverage made of vodka and energy drink”).

lean (uncountable)

1. (slang, US) A recreational drug based on codeine-laced promethazine cough syrup, especially popular in the hip hop community in the southeastern United States.

   Synonyms: sizzurp, syrup, purple drank

   • 2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown‎^[4], performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG), Sony BMG:

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

   • 2020, “Those Kinda Nights”, in Music to Be Murdered By, performed by Eminem ft. Ed Sheeran:

     "What's in the cup, let me see that / Girl, where the rest of that promethazine at?" / She said, "Cool, gotta run out to my Cadillac though / And I'll be like Fat Joe, and bring the lean back"

• lean on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• “lean”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “lean”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

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

lean

1. inflection of ler:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative
2. third-person plural present indicative of lear

From Old Irish lenaid (“stays, sticks (to), follows”), from Proto-Celtic *linati (“to stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyH- (“to smear”); compare Latin linō (“anoint”), līmus (“mud, slime”), Sanskrit लिनाति (lināti, “sticks, stays”).

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /lʲan̪ˠ/
• (Connacht, Ulster) IPA^(key): /l̠ʲanˠ/, /l̠ʲan̪ˠ/^[1]

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

1. (transitive, intransitive) to follow
2. to continue

   Leanfaidh mé ar aghaidh.

   I will continue on.

3. to remain
4. to endure

• Alternative verbal noun: leanacht (Cois Fharraige)

• folean
• leantóir

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “lean”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “lenaid”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /ˈlea̯n/

lean

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

• IPA^(key): /læ͜ɑːn/

From Proto-West Germanic *laun.

lēan n

1. reward

• ġeōlēan
• lēanian

From Proto-West Germanic *lahan. 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 *h₂leyH- (“to smear”); 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”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈlean/ [ˈle.ãn]
• Rhymes: -ean
• Syllabification: le‧an

lean

1. inflection of leer:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative

From Old Frisian lān, from Proto-West Germanic *laun. Cognate with Old English lēan.

lean n (plural leanen, diminutive leantsje)

1. wage, wages, salary
2. reward

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