GLEAN
What does "GLEAN" mean?
To gather information or material bit by bit, often with effort.
Meanings
- To collect information or knowledge slowly, in small pieces. From the scattered notes she gleaned what had really happened.
- To gather grain or other crops left behind by reapers in a field. Villagers were once allowed to glean the fields after the harvest.
Did you know?
- Jean-François Millet's celebrated 1857 painting 'The Gleaners', now in the Musée d'Orsay, shows three women stooping to gather grain left in a harvested field - the literal act behind the word.
Word origin
From Old French 'glener', from Late Latin 'glennare', likely of Celtic origin; the literal harvest sense came first, the figurative 'gather bit by bit' sense followed.
Remember it
To GLEAN is to come away with a clEAN field - you pick up the last grains everyone else left.
A little poem
The reapers and their wagons go.
She bends to what they failed to see-
a supper from their carelessness.
tercet
What it teaches
Wisdom is gleaned, not harvested: most of what you learn is what others walked past.
Quick facts
What does GLEAN mean?
To gather information or material bit by bit, often with effort.
Is GLEAN a valid word?
Yes — GLEAN is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is GLEAN?
GLEAN has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does GLEAN come from?
From Old French 'glener', from Late Latin 'glennare', likely of Celtic origin; the literal harvest sense came first, the figurative 'gather bit by bit' sense followed.
What can GLEAN teach us?
Wisdom is gleaned, not harvested: most of what you learn is what others walked past.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.