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 English's 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.
Example Sentences
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 on the WebThe story comes to question what young people actually glean from posting endlessly about their life. Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 4 Aug. 2022 What can vendors and brands glean from this information? Kate Dingwall, Forbes, 25 Aug. 2022 Devices known as WiFi sniffers and IMSI catchers can glean information from phones in their vicinity, which allow the police to track a target’s movements.New York Times, 26 July 2022 Each bear market is different, but investors can glean some lessons by looking at past market crashes. Ben Carlson, Fortune, 14 July 2022 From this image alone, astronomers can glean important information about the structure of these galaxies and tease out other details, including their mass, age, composition, and more. Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 11 July 2022 Paleontologists were able to glean many important insights from the fossil teeth. Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Aug. 2022 Humans are social, visceral beings, who often glean more about a situation and build more trust with colleagues in face-to-face exchanges than in virtual ones. Jeanne Sahadi, CNN, 13 July 2022 Thor: Love and Thunder hasn't even hit theaters yet, and Marvel fans are already poring over the footage from the trailers to glean clues about what this film might set up for future MCU instalments. Philip Ellis, Men's Health, 14 June 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English glenen, from Anglo-French glener, from Late Latin glennare, of Celtic origin; akin to Old Irish doglenn he selects