lean

/lin/

/lin/

Other forms: leaned; leaning; leant; leans; leanest; leanly

If you lean on something, you incline your body against it, like the way you lean against a wall while waiting in line. If you lean on a person, you rely on her for moral support, like the way you lean on your best friend when you're feeling sad or worried.

If you’re tired, lean back in your chair. If you’re broke, lean on your family for financial help. But something can lean all by itself, if it’s not standing straight. The famous Tower of Pisa leans at an angle of about 4 degrees. As an adjective, we use lean to describe something skimpy or lacking excess flesh. When you're experiencing financial difficulty, you could say you're going through lean (not prosperous) times.

Definitions of lean

1. verb

   incline or bend from a vertical position
   “She leaned over the banister”

   synonyms: angle, slant, tilt, tip

   types:

   incline, pitch, slope

   be at an angle

   weather

   cause to slope

   heel, list

   tilt to one side

   lean back, recline

   move the upper body backwards and down

   ascend

   slope upwards

   stoop

   sag, bend, bend over or down

   fall

   slope downward

   climb

   slope upward

   dip

   slope downwards

   fall back

   fall backwards and down

   type of:

   bend, flex

   form a curve
2. verb

   cause to lean or incline
   type of:

   lay, place, pose, position, put, set

   put into a certain place or abstract location
3. verb

   cause to lean to the side
   synonyms: list

   heel, list

   tilt to one side

   type of:

   move

   move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion
4. noun

   the property possessed by a line or surface that departs from the vertical
   synonyms: inclination, leaning, list, tilt

   type of:

   position, spatial relation

   the spatial property of a place where or way in which something is situated
5. verb

   have a tendency or disposition to do or be something; be inclined
   synonyms: be given, incline, run, tend

   types:

   take kindly to

   be willing or inclined to accept

   suffer

   be given to

   gravitate

   move toward

   type of:

   be

   have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)
6. verb

   rely on for support
   “We can lean on this man”

   synonyms: rely

   type of:

   bank, rely, swear, trust

   have confidence or faith in
7. adjective

   containing little excess
   “a lean budget”

   synonyms: skimpy

   deficient, insufficient

   of a quantity not able to fulfill a need or requirement
8. adjective

   lacking excess flesh
   “"Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look"-Shakespeare”

   synonyms: thin

   ectomorphic

   having a build with little fat or muscle but with long limbs

   anorectic, anorexic

   suffering from anorexia nervosa; pathologically thin

   bony, cadaverous, emaciated, gaunt, haggard, pinched, skeletal, wasted

   very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold

   deep-eyed, hollow-eyed, sunken-eyed

   characteristic of the bony face of a cadaver

   gangling, gangly, lanky

   tall and thin

   lank, spindly

   long and lean

   rawboned

   having a lean and bony physique

   reedlike, reedy

   resembling a reed in being upright and slender

   twiggy, twiglike

   thin as a twig

   scarecrowish

   resembling a scarecrow in being thin and ragged

   boney, scraggy, scrawny, skinny, underweight, weedy

   being very thin

   shriveled, shrivelled, shrunken, withered, wizen, wizened

   lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness

   slender, slight, slim, svelte

   being of delicate or slender build

   slender-waisted, slim-waisted, wasp-waisted

   having a small waist

   spare, trim

   thin and fit

   spindle-legged, spindle-shanked

   having long slender legs

   stringy, wiry

   lean and sinewy

   wisplike, wispy

   thin and weak

   thin

   of relatively small extent from one surface to the opposite or in cross section
9. adjective

   not profitable or prosperous
   “a lean year”

   synonyms:

   unprofitable

   producing little or no profit or gain
10. adjective

    lacking in mineral content or combustible material
    “lean ore”

    “lean fuel”

    antonyms:

    rich

    high in mineral content; having a high proportion of fuel to air