lean-to
Americannoun
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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.
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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
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a shed or outbuilding with such a roof
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.
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
At the start of the novel, Bran lives with her common-law stepfather and his family in a lean-to on their farm in indentured servitude.
From Los Angeles Times • May 24, 2022
At night she sleeps in an unheated lean-to.
From New York Times • May 17, 2022
Daddy was piling buckets onto the truck from the lean-to where they’d been stored, upside down, all winter.
From "Miracles on Maple Hill" by Virginia Sorensen
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.
