glean

See also gleam

English

Etymology

From Middle English glenen, from Anglo-Norman glener, from Late Latin glen(n)ō (“make a collection”), from Gaulish.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ɡliːn/, SAMPA: /gli:n/
• Rhymes: -iːn

Verb

glean (third-person singular simple present gleans, present participle gleaning, simple past and past participle gleaned)

Before the apparition of modern agriculture, women often had to glean.

1. To harvest grain left behind after the crop has been reaped.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible (Authorized Version)^[1], Ruth 2:2,

     Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace.

2. To gather information in small amounts, with implied difficulty, bit by bit.
   • 8 December 2011, BBC News, Iran shows film of captured US drone, available in http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16098562 :

     He said Iran was "well aware of what priceless technological information" could be gleaned from the aircraft.

Synonyms

• (gather information): learn

Translations

harvest grain left behind after the crop has been reaped

Dutch: oppikken (nl), oprapen (nl), inzamelen (nl) French: glaner (fr) German: nachlesen (de)

Latin: racēmor (la) Portuguese: respigar (pt)

gather information in small amounts, with implied difficulty, bit by bit

Dutch: oppikken (nl), leren (nl), verzamelen (nl) German: zusammentragen (de), herausbekommen (de)

Norwegian: gløtte (no), titte (no)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Spanish: espigar

Anagrams

• angel, Angel
• angle, Angle
• Elgan
• Galen