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leanness

   Also found in: Legal, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
Lean  (ln), Sir David 1908-1991.
British filmmaker. His works include The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962), both of which won Academy Awards.

lean 1  (ln)
v. leaned, lean·ing, leans
v.intr.
1. To bend or slant away from the vertical.
2. To incline the weight of the body so as to be supported: leaning against the railing. See Synonyms at slant.
3. To rely for assistance or support: Lean on me for help.
4. To have a tendency or preference: a government that leans toward fascism.
5. Informal To exert pressure: The boss is leaning on us to meet the deadline.
v.tr.
1. To set or place so as to be resting or supported.
2. To cause to incline.
n.
A tilt or an inclination away from the vertical.

[Middle English lenen, from Old English hleonian; see klei- in Indo-European roots.]

lean 2  (ln)
adj. lean·er, lean·est
1. Not fleshy or fat; thin.
2. Containing little or no fat.
3.
a. Not productive or prosperous; meager: lean years.
b. Containing little excess or waste; spare: a lean budget.
c. Thrifty in management; economical: "Company leaders know their industries must be lean to survive" (Christian Science Monitor).
4. Metallurgy Low in mineral contents: lean ore.
Chemistry Lacking in combustible material: lean fuel.
n.
Meat with little or no fat.

[Middle English lene, from Old English hlne.]

leanly adv.
leanness n.
Synonyms: lean2, spare, skinny, scrawny, lank, lanky, rawboned, gaunt
These adjectives mean lacking excess flesh. Lean emphasizes absence of fat: fattened the lean cattle for market.
Spare sometimes suggests trimness and good muscle tone: "an old man, very tall and spare, with an ascetic aspect" (William H. Mallock).
Skinny and scrawny imply unattractive thinness, as with undernourishment: The child has skinny legs with prominent knees. "He [had] a long, scrawny neck that rose out of a very low collar" (Winston Churchill).
Lank describes one who is thin and tall, and lanky one who is thin, tall, and ungraceful: "He was . . . exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders" (Washington Irving). The boy had developed into a lanky adolescent.
Rawboned suggests a thin, bony, gangling build: a rawboned cowhand.
Gaunt implies boniness and a haggard appearance; it may suggest illness or hardship: a white-haired pioneer, her face gaunt from overwork.
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.leanness - the quality of being meager; "an exiguity of cloth that would only allow of miniature capes"-George Eliot
inadequacy, deficiency, insufficiency - lack of an adequate quantity or number; "the inadequacy of unemployment benefits"
wateriness - meagerness or poorness connoted by a superfluity of water (in a literary style as well as in a food); "the haziness and wateriness of his disquisitions"; "the wateriness of his blood"; "no one enjoys the burning of his soup or the wateriness of his potatoes"
abstemiousness - restricted to bare necessities
spareness, sparseness, sparsity, thinness - the property of being scanty or scattered; lacking denseness
2.leanness - the property of having little body fat
bodily property - an attribute of the body
scrawniness, skinniness - the bodily property of lacking flesh
boniness, bonyness, emaciation, gauntness, maceration - extreme leanness (usually caused by starvation or disease)
slimness, slenderness, slightness - the property of an attractively thin person
wiriness - the property of being lean and tough and sinewy
fatness, avoirdupois, blubber, fat - excess bodily weight; "she disliked fatness in herself as well as in others"
Translations
leanness [ˈliːnnɪs] N
1. [of person, body] → delgadez f; [of animal] → flacura f, flaqueza f
2. [of meat] → lo magro
the meat is valued for its leannessla carne es muy apreciada por lo magra que es
leanness
nMagerkeit f; the leanness of his facesein schmales Gesicht; (through lack of food) → sein hageres Gesicht


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
The threatened inundation of fat had subsided, and all his old-time Indian leanness and of muscle had returned.
You will find there is vexation, and liveliness and much of it, in the centre of the dog-killing yard when the sun cooks your sore joints till the grease of the leanness of you bubbles like the tender fat of a cooked sucking-pig.
Any one who imagines ten days too short a time--not for falling into leanness, lightness, or other measurable effects of passion, but-- for the whole spiritual circuit of alarmed conjecture and disappointment, is ignorant of what can go on in the elegant leisure of a young lady's mind.
 
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