glean

/glin/

/glin/

Other forms: gleaned; gleaning; gleans

Glean means to gather bit by bit, either literally or figuratively. You might glean leftover grain from a recently harvested field or glean information about new vocabulary words by hearing them used in context.

When you glean information, you sort through ideas and take what you need. Seeing a word in context lets you glean information about how it's used, for example. If you want to find treasures at a thrift shop, you’ll have to glean the good stuff out of the piles of junk. To glean a field means to walk along and see what’s left on the ground. It takes patience to glean.

Definitions of glean

1. verb

   gather, as of natural products
   synonyms: harvest, reap

   types:

   cut

   reap or harvest

   type of:

   collect, garner, gather, pull together

   assemble or get together
2. verb

   collect or gather bit by bit, especially information
   type of:

   collect, garner, gather, pull together

   assemble or get together