lean-to
Americannoun
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lean-tos
plural
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a shack or shed supported at one side by trees or posts and having an inclined roof.
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a roof of a single pitch with the higher end abutting a wall or larger building.
-
a structure with such a roof.
noun
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a roof that has a single slope with its upper edge adjoining a wall or building
-
a shed or outbuilding with such a roof
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of lean-to
1425–75; late Middle English; noun use of verb phrase lean to
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Our home was a compact, two-story terraced house with a back garden and a little lean-to greenhouse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
There were personal belongings and tarps at the scene, and a lean-to built from local logs over a firepit.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 12, 2023
Before impending nuclear annihilation, a husband paints the windows white and builds a lean-to shelter while his wife frets about his staining the curtains and marking the wallpaper.
From New York Times ● Aug. 10, 2022
If you're outside and caught in the storm, find shelter and try to stay dry and cover all exposed body parts, exercise or build a lean-to, windbreak or snow cave and fire for heat.
From Fox News ● Oct. 26, 2021
Malcolm dragged La Belle Sauvage out of the water and under the lean-to at the side of the inn and hurried inside, his arms aching, and raced up to his bedroom.
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
But hundreds more stayed — and without homes, people have been camping out year after year amid a fire-denuded landscape in mobile homes and lean-tos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2025
By Tuesday, more bamboo and tarpaulins had been brought into the camp, to build new shelters for people crowding under poles and lean-tos.
From New York Times ● Mar. 7, 2023
Her attention was fixed on a highway underpass nearby, where a handful of people were living in tents and cardboard lean-tos.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 14, 2022
Now there are at least 70 - lean-tos, makeshift shelters and tents of different sizes - spreading out from a restroom building at what was once a popular picnic pavilion.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 16, 2020
She could see the shapes of other tents and lean-tos and the fuzzy orange glow of the beacon fire burning atop the watchtower, but not the tower itself.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
