lean
adjective
- thin, lacking in fat
verb
- to (cause to) recline, incline, bend, or deviate from a vertical position; to rely on for support; to sway in opinion or desire
noun
- recreational drug combining prescription-grade cough syrup with a soft drink and hard candy
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈliːn/ / [ˈlɪi̯n] ~ [ˈlɪ̈i̯n]
adj
Etymology: 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”). Compare Old Norse linr (“mild; soft, limp; weak”), Old High German len (“mild”).
- Slim; not fleshy.
“They will now dedicate several hours at the gym every day to be leaner and stronger.”
- Having little fat.
“lean steak cuts”
“The butcher and the porkman painted up only the leanest scrags of meat; the baker, the coarsest of meagre loaves.”
- Having little extra or little to spare; scanty; meagre.
“a lean budget”
“a lean harvest”
- Having a low proportion or concentration of a desired substance or ingredient.
“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.”
- Of a character which prevents the compositor from earning the usual wages; opposed to fat.
“lean copy, matter, or type”
- Efficient, economic, frugal, agile, slimmed-down; pertaining to the modern industrial principles of "lean manufacturing".
“lean management”
“lean manufacturing”
name
Etymology: * As a Scottish Gaelic surname, reduced form of McLean. * As an English surname, from the adjective lean. * As a Chinese surname, from 林 (lín) (see Lin).
- A surname.
noun
Etymology: Probably from the verb to lean (see Etymology 1 above), supposedly because consumption of the intoxicating beverage causes one to lean or sway. Alternatively, from a clipping of gasoline (“an alcoholic beverage made of vodka and energy drink”).
- A 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.”
“"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"”
verb
Etymology: 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”). Compare Old Norse linr (“mild; soft, limp; weak”), Old High German len (“mild”).
- 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.”
“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.”