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• lean
  lean

  verb (used without object)

  to incline or bend from a vertical position.
• Lean
  Lean

  noun

  David, 1908–91, British film director.

lean

¹ American  

[leen] / lin /

verb (used without object)

• leans,
  present (3rd person singular)
• leaned,
  past participle,  past
• leant,
  past participle,  past (especially British)
• leaning
  present participle

1. to incline or bend from a vertical position.

   She leaned out the window.

2. to incline, as in a particular direction; slant.

   The post leans to the left.

   The building leaned sharply before renovation.

3. to incline in feeling, opinion, action, etc..

   to lean toward socialism.

4. to rest against or on something for support.

   to lean against a wall.

5. to depend or rely (usually followed by on orupon ).

   someone he could lean on in an emergency.

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verb (used with object)

• leans,
  present (3rd person singular)
• leaned,
  past participle,  past
• leant,
  past participle,  past (especially British)
• leaning
  present participle

1. to incline or bend.

   He leaned his head forward.

2. to cause to lean or rest; prop.

   to lean a chair against the railing.

noun

1. the act or state of leaning; inclination.

   The tower has a pronounced lean.

verb phrase

1. lean on

   1. to exert influence or pressure on in order to gain cooperation, maintain discipline, or the like.

      The state is leaning on the company to clean up its industrial wastes.

   2. to criticize, reprimand, or punish.

      I would have enjoyed school more if the teachers hadn't leaned on me so much.

2. lean in

   1. to shift one's body weight forward or toward someone or something.

      Because Don was whispering, I had to lean in so I could hear him.

      He stood near home plate and leaned in for the pitch.

   2. to embrace risk, be assertive, etc., as to achieve the greatest level of success in the workplace.

      She really knows how to lean in—she'll have a corner office before long.

idioms

1. lean over backward(s). bend.

lean ² American  

[leen] / lin /

adjective

• leaner,
  comparative
• leanest
  superlative

1. (of persons or animals) without much flesh or fat; not plump or fat; thin.

   lean cattle.

   Synonyms:

   lanky, lank, skinny

   Antonyms:

   fat

2. (of edible meat) containing little or no fat.

   Antonyms:

   fat

3. lacking in richness, fullness, quantity, etc.; poor.

   a lean diet; lean years.

   Synonyms:

   jejune, unfruitful, barren, sparse

   Antonyms:

   fruitful

4. spare; economical.

   a lean prose style.

5. Automotive. (of a mixture in a fuel system) having a relatively low ratio of fuel to air (contrasted with rich).

6. (of paint) having more pigment than oil.

7. Nautical. (of a bow) having fine lines; sharp.

8. Metallurgy. (of ore) having a low mineral content; low-grade.

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noun

1. the part of flesh that consists of muscle rather than fat.

2. the lean part of anything.

3. Typesetting. matter that is difficult to set because of complexity or intermixed fonts.

Lean ³ American  

[leen] / lin /

noun

1. David, 1908–91, British film director.

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lean ¹ British  

/ liːn /

adjective

1. (esp of a person or an animal) having no surplus flesh or bulk; not fat or plump

2. not bulky or full

3. (of meat) having little or no fat

4. not rich, abundant, or satisfying

5. (of a mixture of fuel and air) containing insufficient fuel and too much air

   a lean mixture

6. (of printer's type) having a thin appearance

7. (of a paint) containing relatively little oil

8. (of an ore) not having a high mineral content

9. (of concrete) made with a small amount of cement

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noun

1. the part of meat that contains little or no fat

lean ² British  

/ liːn /

verb

1. to rest or cause to rest against a support

2. to incline or cause to incline from a vertical position

3. (intr; foll by to or towards) to have or express a tendency or leaning

4. informal to make a special effort, esp in order to please

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noun

1. the condition of inclining from a vertical position

Lean ³ British  

/ liːn /

noun

1. Sir David. 1908–91, English film director. His films include In Which We Serve (1942), Blithe Spirit (1945), Brief Encounter (1946), Great Expectations (1946), Oliver Twist (1948), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Dr Zhivago (1965), and A Passage to India (1984)

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Usage

What else does lean mean? Content warning: this article contains references to drug abuse. In slang, lean is a term for prescription-strength cough syrup mixed with soft drinks and candy. It’s also known by such other names as purple drank or sizzurp.

Synonym Usage

See thin.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• leanness
  noun
• leanly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Adjectives

• leaner
  comparative
• leanest
  superlative

Participles

• leaning
  present
• leaned
  past
• leant
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• lean
  simple
• leans
  simple
• have leaned
  perfect
• have leant
  perfect
• has leaned
  perfect
• has leant
  perfect
• am leaning
  progressive
• are leaning
  progressive
• is leaning
  progressive
• have been leaning
  perfect progressive
• has been leaning
  perfect progressive

Past

• leaned
  simple
• leant
  simple
• had leaned
  perfect
• had leant
  perfect
• was leaning
  progressive
• were leaning
  progressive
• had been leaning
  perfect progressive

Future

• will lean
  simple
• will have leaned
  perfect
• will have leant
  perfect
• will be leaning
  progressive
• will have been leaning
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of lean¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English lenen, Old English hleonian, hlinian; cognate with German lehnen; akin to Greek klī́nein, Latin -clīnāre “to incline ”

Origin of lean²

First recorded before 1000; Middle English lene, lein(e), Old English hlǣne

Explanation

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lean Lean leaner leanest leans leaned leant leaning

She’s 5 foot 4, lean and seems athletic, though she says she’s “the least athletic person that anybody knows.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

Apart from Red Bull, all are car manufacturers who have wider automotive companies to offset the cost, and expertise on which to lean.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management said: "The significance is that Washington has demonstrated a willingness to lean against disorderly dollar strength when it threatens an important ally and begins destabilising broader markets."

From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026

Shudu has a tall, lean figure and an immaculate, glowing complexion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026

Nana Dee is tall, lean, and has the posture of a seasoned ballerina.

From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold

Lean in, though, and you’ll hear how carefully she’s building toward a feeling of complete abandon.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026

Much of his scorn, for example, is directed at the millennial Lean In crowd that wanted women to be more like successful men—ambitious and loud.

From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2026

Or Sheryl Sandberg, whose Lean In Foundation now hawks AI to women; in March, Sandberg joined the board of directors of Nscale, a British data-center startup.

From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026

Lean mass or muscle made up 14.6% of total weight loss in the apitegromab group, compared with 30.2% in the placebo group that received a dummy treatment alongside Mounjaro.

From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026

“Let’s lean you forward a little bit, so that you can always be moving into the next stride, instead of holding yourself back on each stride. Lean this way,” I did.

From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt

Rather than explain how a leaner fish or one packed in oil might change the cake, the recipe simply expands to encompass nearly anything.

From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026

Unlike the Hollywood Bowl, which has fleets of shuttles ready to go, F&M Bank Amphitheater’s shuttle operation felt a bit leaner.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026

For now, the economic logic pulling startups toward leaner teams shows no sign of easing.

From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026

Data from the past five decades shows top players have become both taller and leaner, according to researchers from Wolverhampton University in the UK.

From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026

She was lighter and leaner; she was Curt’s Girlfriend, a role she slipped into asinto a favorite, flattering dress.

From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

It's not a lie - I was never the leanest cricketer in the world, but I won games for franchises.

From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2023

The Discovery missions are the leanest, with a cost cap of $450 million.

From Scientific American ● Aug. 2, 2022

Hotels across the country are bracing for what is expected to be one of China's leanest holiday travel periods since early 2020.

From Reuters ● Apr. 29, 2022

The average life span accepted for male southern resident orcas today is based on 42 years of data during what are likely the leanest fishing years the southern residents have ever experienced.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 16, 2021

Study after study shows that the leanest curriculums are being offered in the highest-poverty areas, despite ample evidence that this is exactly the wrong thing to do.

From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove

“The New Abnormal” had a handful of compact songs that channeled the band’s ultra-cool early influences—think arty garage-rock like the Velvet Underground, the Stooges and Television—but “Reality Awaits” leans into experimentation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

The models it normally leans on assume inflation is a broad-based phenomenon, with the labor market central to the story.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

Aviv’s journalistic method leans on the idea of unreliable narration.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

For most Americans, a practical use case leans heavily toward traditional hybrids, Murphy added.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026

Caesar leans down, handing me three skinned wild squirrels.

From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes

During the campaign, he leaned heavily into his self-proclaimed nickname "The Tiger," sharing AI-generated images of himself as a fanged tiger and the only candidate willing to wage war on crime and insurgency.

From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026

Before the Los Angeles Rams pulled off the blockbuster trade of the NFL offseason, coach Sean McVay leaned on one of his former players for advice.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

After losing both his grandmother and a cousin to cancer, Gu said he understood what she had been facing and naturally became one of the people she leaned on the most.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

The broad overperformance, however, came as Ford notched another loss and revenue drop for its ailing EV business, and leaned on its storied pickup trucks to limit a year-over-year sales drop.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

Russell laid his arm on the armrest between us and leaned closer to me.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

Researchers said the work also leant further credence to a theory about humpback whale patterns known as the "Southern Ocean Exchange".

From Barron's ● May 20, 2026

He sought out some professional help but leant largely on friends, family and his faith to change his mentality.

From BBC ● Jan. 31, 2026

The family also claims the new authorities have leant on the courts to find them guilty.

From Barron's ● Nov. 12, 2025

It leant the audience a discerning sense of agency, as we could control the show but only to a point.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2025

She was returning: of course my heart thumped with impatience against the iron rails I leant upon.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

Levy boarded and positioned himself directly in front of the woman, before leaning his elbow on her.

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026

Not realising they were audible even leaning out of windows or in the garden, the prisoners let slip secrets, including details of the development of the first ballistic missiles, V-2s.

From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026

While weather forecasts have been leaning toward warmer than normal, “temperature deviations from normal don’t yet appear sufficient to spur much of a price advance from here,” Ritterbusch & Associates says in a note.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

The company also said it would be leaning into more personalized digital marketing and offerings to bring back frequent visitors.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026

“One of the many perks of being you,” Elliot muttered, picking at the bark of the tree he was leaning against.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

Related Words

• angular
• gangly
• gaunt
• lanky
• rangy
• sinewy
• skinny
• slender
• slim
• sparse
• svelte
• wiry