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The Grainy History of Glean
While it is certainly true that one must reap what one sows (that is, harvest the crops that one plants), what should be done about the grain and other produce left over that the reapers missed? Well, friends, that must be gleaned—waste not, want not, after all. It’s a finicky business, too, picking through stalks and under leaves and whatnot. When it was first used in English in the 14th century, glean carried both the sense of “to gather grain or other produce left by reapers” and the more figurative meaning of “to gather information or material bit by bit,” reflecting the slow, gradual, painstaking work of scouring the fields. 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.
Examples of glean in a Sentence
Darryl Seligman, Space.com, 15 Dec. 2025
Some people, in other words, will come in armed with the idea, in many cases gleaned in individual therapy, that their spouse’s rather normal behavior is actually pathological.
—Olga Khazan, The Atlantic, 12 Dec. 2025
After doing a little digging, Jacob concluded the footage was potentially gleaned from a YouTube longplay video of a gamer trying to complete Ghosts N’ Goblins.
—Jack Beresford, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Dec. 2025
That can certainly be gleaned from Dijon’s music, or from hearing him talk about how Funcrusher Plus rewired his brain.
—Paul A. Thompson, Pitchfork, 8 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for glean
Cite this Entry
“Glean.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glean. Accessed 18 Dec. 2025.
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glean
verb
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