Lenten

Or lent·en

[len-tn]

adjective

1. of, relating to, or suitable for Lent.

2. suggesting Lent, as in austerity, frugality, or rigorousness; meager.

lenten

/ ˈlɛntən /

adjective

1. (often capital) of or relating to Lent

2. archaic,  spare, plain, or meagre

   lenten fare

3. archaic,  cold, austere, or sombre

   a lenten lover

Word History and Origins

Origin of Lenten¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English lente(n) “spring, springtime, Lent,” noun use of Old English noun and adjective lengten, læncgten, lencten “spring, springtime, Lent; of springtime, Lenten”; later taken as an adjective ending in -en; Lent, -en ²

Example Sentences

It allowed me to sing hallelujah in the Lenten season,” referring to the run-up to Easter.

From Salon

The length of time may be symbolic, but the call to action is not; a Lenten boycott of the retailer, says Bryant’s website, is “a spiritual act of resistance.”

From Los Angeles Times

He traces his awareness of their potential to a moment, at the age of about 8, when his psychiatrist father took him to the Lenten carnival held every year at the mental hospital near where they lived in Valencia, Venezuela.

From New York Times

That didn’t include the readers who reached out to me after I wrote a column about Mami’s capirotada — Mexican Lenten bread pudding.

From Los Angeles Times

Diarmuid Ó Giolláin, professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA, said St Patrick's Day has always been marked not only because it was a celebration of the patron saint but also because a dispensation allowed the Lenten fast to be broken - meat to be eaten and alcohol drunk - whilst Christians everywhere else were fasting.

From BBC