Glean

Quick meaning: Glean is a verb meaning To collect (fruit, grain, or other produce) from a field, an orchard, etc., after the main gathering or harvest.

Meaning

To collect (fruit, grain, or other produce) from a field, an orchard, etc., after the main gathering or harvest.

More Meanings

1. To take away (someone's) possessions; to strip (someone) bare.
2. 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.
3. To collect or gather (things) into one mass.
4. To cut off (straggling soldiers separated from their units) during a conflict; to isolate.
5. To collect fruit, grain, or other produce after the main gathering or harvest.
6. 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.
7. 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.

Example Sentences

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.

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 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.

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: […]

Word Forms

• gleans
• gleaning
• gleaned
• gleanest
• gleanedst
• gleaneth

Synonyms for glean

Depending on context, synonyms include lease, extract, learn, wring, clean, cleaning.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include harvest, reap, garner, draw, collect, gather.

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