glean

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To collect (fruit, grain, or other produce) from a field, an orchard, etc., after the main gathering or harvest.

   So holy, and ſo perfect is my loue, / And I in ſuch a pouerty of grace, / That I ſhall thinke it a moſt plenteous crop / To gleane the broken eares after the man / That the maine harueſt reapes: […]

2. 2
   verb

   To gather (something, now chiefly something intangible such as experience or information) in small amounts over a period of time, often with some difficulty; to scrape together.

   [Ferdinand] Magellan ſoone after ſailes yet more South, and paſſes that Fretum or ſtrait, vvith more reaſon called Magellan, a hundred others haue ſince that gleaned ſeueral additions of Titles and nevv names their diſtributed.

3. 3
   verb

   Of an animal, especially a bat or a bird: to feed by picking up or plucking (prey, mainly arthropods such as insects) from various places.

   Frigate birds glean a portion of their livelihood from the host of creatures which live at the surface of the ocean: flying-fishes, ctenophores, jelly-fishes, velela, janthina, and in fact anything that may attract their fancy. I even observed one bird aimlessly carrying a splinter of wood, uncertain of its utility, yet unwilling to release it.

4. 4
   verb

   To collect or gather (things) into one mass.

   Such ſlender arguments be gleaneth together agaynſt vs, ſeeking bye matters. But what ſhould he do? elſe ſhould he haue nought to furniſhe his counterblaſt withall.

5. 5
   verb

   To cut off (straggling soldiers separated from their units) during a conflict; to isolate.

   And they turned and fled toward the wilderneſſe vnto the rocke of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the high wayes fiue thouſand men: and purſued hard after them vnto Gidom, and ſlew two thouſand men of them.

6. 6
   verb

   To collect fruit, grain, or other produce after the main gathering or harvest.

   Put nat your horſes in to the corne felde yet for my folkes haue nat gleaned there yet: […]

7. 7
   noun

   A collection of something made by gleaning.

   Even the greateſt, in reſpect of God, is but a gleaner. God, he is the Maſter of the Harveſt; all Gifts and Graces they are his, in an infinite meaſure; and every godly man, more or leſſe, gleanes from him. Abraham gleaned a great gleane of Faith; Moſes, of Meekneſſe; […]

8. 8
   noun

   The afterbirth or placenta of an animal, especially a cow or sheep.

   The gleane of a covv hauing nevvly calved, taken vvhiles it is moiſt and ſo applied, is good for any ulcers of the viſage.

Etymology

The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenen (“to gather (heads of grain left by reapers), glean; to gather (things) together, collect”), from Old French glener, glainer (modern French glaner (“to gather, glean”)), from Late Latin glen(n)are, the present active infinitive of glen(n)ō (“to make a collection”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *glanos (“clean; clear”, adjective), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰleh₁- (“to glow, shine; to be glowing or shining”). The noun is derived from Late Middle English glene (“collection of heads of grain ga…