lean

present singular third person leans · participle present leaning · participle past leaned · past leaned · UK participle past leant · UK past leant

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

   a leaning column

   2 more examples

   She leaned out of the window.

   In Pisa, where [Galileo] was born, I climbed the worn steps of the tower that has been leaning southward almost from the day it was built in the 13th century.

   1989 May, John Boslough, “Searching for the Secrets of Gravity”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 567

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

   The Hispanic vote leans Democratic.

   2 more examples

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

   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.

   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

3. Followed by against; on; or upon; Followed by against; on; or uponTo rest or rely, for support, comfort, to use as a hard surface for writing, etc.

   He lean'd not on his fathers but himself.

   1864, Alfred Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 54

   1 more example

   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.

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

4. To hang outwards.
5. To press against.

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

   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

plural leans

1. An inclination away from the vertical.

   The trees had various leans toward gaps in the canopy.

   Synonyms: tilt

comparative leaner · superlative leanest

1. Slim; not fleshy.

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

   2024 May 1, ZacharyFurr, “Gym types”, in The In Constant Chronicles

   Synonyms: lithe, svelte, willowy, gaunt, gracile, lank, leansome, lithe

2. Having little fat.

   lean steak cuts

   1 more example

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

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

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

   a lean budget

   1 more example

   a lean harvest

   Synonyms: insufficient, scarce, sparse, awanting, deficient, dismal, exiguous, geason

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

   A lean ore hardly worth mining.

   1 more example

   Running on too lean a fuel-air mixture will cause, among other problems, your internal combustion engine to heat up too much.

   Synonyms: deficient, dilute, poor · Antonyms: rich

5. archaicmediaOf a character which prevents the compositor from earning the usual wages; opposed to fat.

   lean copy, matter, or type

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

   lean management

   3 more examples

   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.

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

plural leans

1. uncountableMeat with no fat on it.

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

   1639, or earlier, Anon: Jack Sprat

2. countablebiologyAn organism that is lean in stature.

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

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

   1 more example

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

   1986, Southwest Fisheries Center (U.S.), Collected Reprints (issue 1)

present singular third person leans · participle present leaning · participle past leaned · past 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.

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

   1938 July, Harold Blaine Miller, Dupont Miller, “Weather Hop”, in Boys' Life, Boy Scouts of America, →ISSN, page 25

   1 more example

   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.

   2002 July, Tom Benenson, “Can Your Engine Run Too Lean?”, in Flying, volume 129, number 7, →ISSN, page 73

   Synonyms: derich, disenrich · Antonyms: enrich

1. USslanguncountableA recreational drug composed of codeine-promethazine cough syrup mixed with usually soda and associated with the hip-hop culture of the Southern United States.

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

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

   1 more example

   "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"

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

   Synonyms: blood, mud, purple drank, sizzurp, snot, syrup

plural Leans

1. A surname.