glean

From Middle English glenen, from Anglo-Norman glener, from Late Latin glen(n)ō (“make a collection”), from Gaulish, possibly from Proto-Celtic *glanos.[1]

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɡliːn/

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• Hyphenation: glean
• Rhymes: -iːn

glean (third-person singular simple present gleans, present participle gleaning, simple past and past participle gleaned)

Before the advent of modern agriculture, women often had to glean.

1. To collect what is left behind (grain, grapes, etc.) after the main harvest or gathering.

   Synonym: lease

   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:

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

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ruth 2:2:

     Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace.

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

   to glean a field

3. (figurative) To gather information in small amounts, with implied difficulty, bit by bit.

   Synonym: learn

   • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:

     content to glean what we can from […] experiments

   • 8 December 2011, BBC News, Iran shows film of captured US drone, available in http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16098562 :

     He said Iran was "well aware of what priceless technological information" could be gleaned from the aircraft.

4. To frugally accumulate resources from low-yield contexts.

   Synonyms: wring, extract

   • 1912, Edith and Warner Oland, “Biographical Note”, in Three Plays By August Strindberg, page xi:

     He [August Strindberg] gleaned a living from newspaper work for a few months, but in the summer went to a fishing village […] where […] he wrote his great historical drama Master Olof.

glean (plural gleans)

1. A collection made by gleaning.
   • 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     The gleans of yellow thyme distend his thighs.

glean

1. (obsolete) cleaning; afterbirth
   • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book II.]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635, →OCLC:

     The gleane of a Cow hauing newly calued […] is good for any vlcers of the visage.

• “glean”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “glean”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

• -angle, Angel, Angle, Elgan, Galen, Lange, Legan, Nagle, agnel, angel, angle, genal, lenga

glean m

1. Eclipsed form of clean.