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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

The trio ran a lean operation, describing themselves at various points as a media company, a consulting agency and an investment firm.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

“I want us to lean into that. That means supporting artists; it means supporting staff in doing really bold projects.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026

With lean teams, many small-caps can adopt AI tools quickly, automate workflows, and expand capacity without proportionally growing head count.

From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026

Many analysts still lean bullish on AI infrastructure, pointing to the hundreds of billions of dollars in spending planned globally.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

This one was long and lean, like a dream of a driving machine.

From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck

But over time, as the library grew and news of it spread, more mathematicians were drawn to contribute to and join the Lean circle.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

Then Thomas Hubert of Google’s DeepMind came up with a way to improve their performance: Instead of settling for a bad “proof,” LLMs would enter their initial work product into Lean, which would provide feedback.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

The mainstreaming of Lean and the inroads made by LLMs have forced mathematicians for the first time in more than a century to reckon with the fundamentals of their field.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

Kevin Buzzard, a flamboyant British number theorist, believes that Lean will cleanse mathematics of its excessive sloppiness.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

Lean hear Dad’s voice saying, “Get a flashlight,” but I’m already out on the back porch, then running up the hill.

From "Shiloh" by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Management reiterated its value over volume approach, pairing portfolio and pricing actions with a cost-savings program and a leaner, more agile operating model, analysts Jose M Asumendi and Piyush Singla write.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

Instead of wide postwar boulevards, roads would become slower and leaner, transforming Long Beach into a top-five global cycling city, said former city traffic engineer Paul Van Dyk.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

The mice also appeared younger, leaner and more physically fit than control animals of the same age.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026

The move marks one of Uber's largest restructurings in years and signals a shift towards a leaner operating model.

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

The portions at breakfast keep getting smaller and smaller, and even dinner—the only normal-size meal we get—is getting leaner by the day.

From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland

A commonly eaten meat in Australia, kangaroo is the world’s leanest protein and the equivalent of venison in America.

From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026

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

"Sell in May and go away" is based on the premise that the best six-month period of the year for stock market returns is November to April, while the leanest is May to October.

From Reuters ● May 5, 2023

Schrader takes a page from the great journalism movies — most notably “All the President’s Men” and, more recently, “Spotlight” — by paring down the narrative to its leanest, most unfussy elements.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 16, 2022

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

Picture a developer trying to build a hillside home; a commission that’s wary of such projects could reject it, while another commission that leans more pro-housing could approve it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

It’s a proven formula that leans into the ridiculousness of mundane situations but earns its audience every holiday season.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

Meanwhile, a level set in a council estate leans into the concrete starkness of the area's looming grey buildings.

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026

The report sees AI as a serious threat, and leans into the notion of fostering human-centered judgment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026

After giving Ray his tomato juice, she leans over to whisper in my ear: “He okay?”

From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko

They did not attempt to find the quirks in this familiar score, but rather leaned into its inherent merits.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

“It weakens the ‘no low-band’ rebuttal management teams have leaned on,” Maral wrote.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026

Over the summer, the Three Lions found ways to win but often leaned on scrappy moments of brilliance rather than methodical dominance.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

An endless array of products leaned into the public’s awe at the age’s sci-fi possibilities.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

I leaned toward Betsie, ahead of me in line.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

Nordqvist's singles line-up also leant heavily on a willingness to trust in youth.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

His controversial legacy is one she leant into throughout the campaign, promising a tough military crackdown on organised crime, in particular extortion incidents that have soared in recent years.

From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026

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

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

From Barron's ● Nov. 12, 2025

It seemed at first there was a sheer drop down to the sands, but once you leant over the rail, you could see zigzagging footpaths leading you down the cliff-face to the seafront.

From "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro

Now it is leaning harder into those other lines of work, though its wine business is still its main line of business by far.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

“I’m not really sure 200% if we went there or not. I wouldn’t say I’m leaning one way or the other. I just know I’m a little bit skeptical.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

However, leaning into cuteness comes with its own risks.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026

Both parties are trying to remedy mistakes of elections past in the hopes of winning over the Gen Z vote, launching targeted recruitment efforts, hiring more young people and leaning into social media.

From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026

I felt as if we were two small trees standing beside each other, leaning towards each other, our branches and twigs starting to entwine, bonded by our secret and by our growing friendship.

From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler

Related Words

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