glean
/ɡlin/
Frequency: 2.73 in modern English
Meaning
verb
To collect (fruit, grain, or other produce) from a field, an orchard, etc., after the main gathering or harvest.
Transitive verb
verb
To gather (something, now chiefly something intangible such as experience or information) in small amounts over a period of time, often with some difficulty; to scrape together.
Transitive verb
verb
Of an animal, especially a bat or a bird: to feed by picking up or plucking (prey, mainly arthropods such as insects) from various places.
Transitive verb
verb
To cut off (straggling soldiers separated from their units) during a conflict; to isolate.
Obsolete; Transitive verb
verb
To collect fruit, grain, or other produce after the main gathering or harvest.
Intransitive verb
verb
Of an animal, especially a bat or a bird: to feed by picking up or plucking prey, mainly arthropods such as insects, from various places.
Intransitive verb
Example Sentences
- "So holy, and ſo perfect is my loue, / And I in ſuch a pouerty of grace, / That I ſhall thinke it a moſt plenteous crop / To gleane the broken eares after the man / That the maine harueſt reapes: […]"
- "And thou ſhalt not gleane thy vineyard, neither ſhalt thou gather euery grape of thy vineyard; thou ſhalt leaue them for the poore and ſtranger: I am the Lord your God."
- "And Ruth the Moabiteſſe ſaide vnto Naomi, Let me now goe to the field, and gleane eares of corne after him, in whoſe ſight I ſhall finde grace."
- "And thus ſhe vvent compell'd / By ſtrong neceſſity, vvith as ſerene, / And pleas'd a look as patience can put on, / To glean Palæmon's fields."
- "He [the Calydonian boar] ruined vineyards lying in the sun, / After his harvesting the men must glean / What he had left; right glad they had not been / Among the tall stalks of the ripening wheat, / The fell destroyer's fatal tusks to meet."
- "Some harvest loss was gleaned by animals, although little information is available on the proportion of harvest loss gleaned and no hard data is available on the quantity. Academic researchers told us that as much as one-third of the corn lost in harvest was gleaned."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: glenen, glener, glenare, -, *glanos, *ǵʰleh₁-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɡlin/
- British English: /ɡliːn/