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glean - 8 dictionary results

glean

  [gleen]
Use glean in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to gather slowly and laboriously, bit by bit.
2. to gather (grain or the like) after the reapers or regular gatherers.
3. to learn, discover, or find out, usually little by little or slowly.
–verb (used without object)
4. to collect or gather anything little by little or slowly.
5. to gather what is left by reapers.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME glenen < OF glener < LL glennāre ≪ Celtic

Related forms:
glean⋅a⋅ble, adjective
gleaner, noun

Synonyms:
3. garner, deduce, infer.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To glean
glean   (glēn)   
v.   gleaned, glean·ing, gleans

v.   intr.
To gather grain left behind by reapers.
v.   tr.
  1. To gather (grain) left behind by reapers.
  2. To collect bit by bit: "records from which historians glean their knowledge" (Kemp Malone). See Synonyms at reap.

[Middle English glenen, from Old French glener, from Late Latin glennāre, probably of Celtic origin.]
glean'er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Glean

Glean\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Gleaned; p. pr. & vb. n. Gleaning.] [OE. glenen, OF. glener, glaner, F. glaner, fr. LL. glenare; cf. W. glan clean, glanh?u to clean, purify, or AS. gelm, gilm, a hand?ul.]

1. To gather after a reaper; to collect in scattered or fragmentary parcels, as the grain left by a reaper, or grapes left after the gathering.

To glean the broken ears after the man That the main harvest reaps. --Shak.

2. To gather from (a field or vineyard) what is left.

3. To collect with patient and minute labor; to pick out; to obtain.

Content to glean what we can from . . . experiments. --Locke.

Glean

Glean\, v. i. 1. To gather stalks or ears of grain left by reapers.

And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers. --Ruth ii. 3.

2. To pick up or gather anything by degrees.

Piecemeal they this acre first, then that; Glean on, and gather up the whole estate. --Pope.

Glean

Glean\, n. A collection made by gleaning.

The gleans of yellow thyme distend his thighs. --Dryden.

Glean

Glean\, n. Cleaning; afterbirth. [Obs.] --Holland.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : glean
Spanish: recoger, recopilar,
German: sammeln,
Japanese: 拾う
More Translations »

glean 
c.1330, from O.Fr. glener, from L.L. glennare "make a collection," from Gaulish (cf. O.Ir. do-glinn "he collects, gathers," Celt. glan "clean, pure"). Figurative sense was earlier in Eng. than the literal one of "gather grain left by the reapers" (c.1385).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Glean

The corners of fields were not to be reaped, and the sheaf accidentally left behind was not to be fetched away, according to the law of Moses (Lev. 19:9; 23:22; Deut. 24:21). They were to be left for the poor to glean. Similar laws were given regarding vineyards and oliveyards. (Comp. Ruth 2:2.)

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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