lean

verb

1. (intransitive)To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating.

   “a leaning column”

   “She leaned out of the window.”

2. (copulative)To incline in opinion or desire; to conform in conduct; often with to, toward, etc.

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

   “The Hispanic vote leans Democratic.”

   “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.”

3. To rest or rely, for support, comfort, to use as a hard surface for writing, etc.

   “He lean'd not on his fathers but himself.”

   “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.”

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

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

6. 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.”

noun

1. An inclination away from the vertical.

   “The trees had various leans toward gaps in the canopy.”

2. (uncountable)Meat with no fat on it.

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

3. (countable)An organism that is lean in stature.

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

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

4. (US, slang, uncountable)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"”

adj

1. Slim; not fleshy.

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

2. 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.”

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

   “a lean budget”

   “a lean harvest”

4. 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.”

5. (archaic)Of a character which prevents the compositor from earning the usual wages; opposed to fat.

   “lean copy, matter, or type”

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

   “lean management”

   “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.”

name

1. A surname.