glean

verb \ ˈglēn \

Updated on: 18 May 2018

Definition of glean

intransitive verb

1 : to gather grain or other produce left by reapers

2 : to gather information or material bit by bit

transitive verb

1 a : to pick up after a reaper

b : to strip of the leavings of reapers

glean a field

2 a : to gather (something, such as information) bit by bit

can glean secrets from his hard drive

b : to pick over in search of relevant material

gleaning old files for information

3 : find out

The police used old-fashioned detective work to glean his whereabouts.

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gleanable

play \ˈglē-nə-bəl\ adjective

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gleaner

noun

See glean defined for English-language learners

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Examples of glean in a Sentence

She gleaned her data from various studies.
He has a collection of antique tools gleaned from flea markets and garage sales.
They spent days gleaning the files for information.
They spent hours gleaning in the wheat fields.
gleaning stray ears of corn

Recent Examples of glean from the Web

The Wall Street Journal reconstructed the mass killing in Chut Pyin, gleaned from more than two dozen interviews with Rohingya villagers and local Buddhists.

— niharika mandhana, WSJ, "‘We’ll Turn Your Village Into Soil’: Survivors Recount One of Myanmar’s Biggest Massacres," 11 May 2018
Setting up in the midst of the spring migration, a band of bird loving gypsies are once again catching as many of the global travelers as possible, gleaning scientific data from them, and sending them on their way.

— ben raines, AL.com, "Tiny birds, incredible journey," 20 Apr. 2018
By comparing images from this dataset to information gleaned from the most recent aerial survey, researchers were able to assess how the Everglades changed after Irma.

— brigit katz, Smithsonian, "‘Staggering’ Damage to Florida’s Everglades Remains in the Wake of Hurricane Irma," 20 Apr. 2018
Cambridge also provided online survey data to the campaign, although that would not have used the information gleaned from Facebook.

— kevin diaz, San Antonio Express-News, "Cruz campaign says it was assured Cambridge Analytica’s data was legal," 20 Mar. 2018
Sam3 visited Cleveland in January to glean ideas from public meetings and share preliminary sketches.

— steven litt, cleveland.com, "Artist Sam3 wants to 'camouflage' surge tank near lakefront with art to make it 'disappear' (photos)," 2 Mar. 2018
In a paper published in Joule, the researchers compared data from 2003 and 2012 gleaned from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), which is conducted by the BLS.

— megan geuss, Ars Technica, "Americans staying home, streaming video, and using less energy because of it," 7 Feb. 2018
His reviews often included references to performances in San Francisco and gleaned from his trips to Italy.

— bryan marquard, BostonGlobe.com, "David Bonetti, 70, incisive, at times inciting, critic of art, architecture," 20 Apr. 2018
What Bloomberg reporters gleaned from Zuckerberg’s notes left open at the Senate hearing.

— jaclyn gallucci, Fortune, "Here's How Washington Could 'Unfriend' Facebook," 12 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'glean.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

The Grainy History of glean

Glean comes from Middle English glenen, which traces to Anglo-French glener, meaning "to glean." The French borrowed their word from Late Latin glennare, which also means "to glean" and is itself of Celtic origin. Both the grain-gathering sense and the collecting-bit-by-bit senses of our glean date back at least to the 14th century. Over the years, and especially in the 20th and 21st centuries, glean has also come to be used frequently with the meaning "to find out, learn, ascertain." This sense has been criticized by folks who think glean should always imply the drudgery involved in the literal grain-gathering sense, but it is well established and perfectly valid.

Origin and Etymology of glean

Middle English glenen, from Anglo-French glener, from Late Latin glennare, of Celtic origin; akin to Old Irish doglenn he selects

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

See Words from the same year

GLEAN Defined for English Language Learners

glean

verb

Definition of glean for English Language Learners

: to gather or collect (something) in a gradual way
: to search (something) carefully
: to gather grain or other material that is left after the main crop has been gathered