lean

Meaning

Verb

1. To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating.
2. To incline in opinion or desire; to conform in conduct; often with to, toward, etc.
3. To rest or rely, for support, comfort, etc.
4. To hang outwards.
5. To press against.

Noun

An inclination away from the vertical.

Adj

1. Slim; not fleshy.
2. Having little fat.
3. Having little extra or little to spare; scanty; meagre.
4. Having a low proportion or concentration of a desired substance or ingredient.
5. Of a character which prevents the compositor from earning the usual wages; opposed to fat.
6. Efficient, economic, frugal, agile, slimmed-down; pertaining to the modern industrial principles of "lean manufacturing".

Noun

1. Meat with no fat on it.
2. An organism that is lean in stature.

Noun

A recreational drug based on codeine-laced promethazine cough syrup, especially popular in the hip hop community in the southeastern United States.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/liːn/

Etymology

From Middle English lenen (“to lean”), from Old English hleonian, hlinian (“to lean, recline, lie down, rest”), from Proto-West Germanic *hlinēn, from Proto-Germanic *hlināną (“to lean, incline”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley-.
Cognate via Proto-Germanic with Middle Dutch leunen (“to lean”), German lehnen (“to lean”); via Proto-Indo-European with climate, cline.