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Lean   /lin/   Listen
Lean

adjective
(compar. leaner; superl. leanest)
1.
Lacking excess flesh.  Synonym: thin.  "Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look"
2.
Lacking in mineral content or combustible material.  "Lean fuel"
3.
Containing little excess.  Synonym: skimpy.  "A skimpy allowance"
4.
Not profitable or prosperous.



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"Lean" Quotes from Famous Books



... in the tall dank weeds And I lay my oars in silence by, And lean, and draw the slippery reeds Through my ...
— Poems • Sophia M. Almon

... the tailor's wife, after the manner of a French exercise, and ignored him. It was early and business had not yet begun on the Y.M.C.A. corner; still he could not wait forever. The grocer himself, who was attending to the wants of a lean and hungry-looking student, had just handed his rolls and smoked sausage across the counter, with a cheery "Breakfast is ready, ring the bell," when the door opened and the Girl of ...
— The Little Red Chimney - Being the Love Story of a Candy Man • Mary Finley Leonard

... exceedingly white and lean person. She has thick eyebrows, which meet rather dangerously over her nose, which is Grecian, and a small mouth with no lips—a sort of feeble pucker in the face as it were. Under her eyebrows are a pair of enormous ...
— Men's Wives • William Makepeace Thackeray

... indecisively that a sight met his eye which spurred hesitancy to immediate action. Around the bend far up the stream came sweeping a tangle of wreckage—trees, and brush, and floating timber—and swirling along in its wake was a small lean-to which he recognized as one that had stood on the bank of the river at Melton, the village located five miles above Freeman's Falls. If the water were high enough to carry away this building, it must indeed have risen to a menacing height and there ...
— Ted and the Telephone • Sara Ware Bassett

... seeds, and are often due to the changes resulting from the action of the natural ferments or enzymes inherent in the food materials. As previously stated, the insoluble proteids are present in far the largest amount of any of the nitrogenous materials of foods. Lean meat and the gluten of wheat and other grains are examples of the insoluble proteids. The various insoluble proteids from different food materials each has its own composition and distinctive chemical and physical properties, ...
— Human Foods and Their Nutritive Value • Harry Snyder

... for the government at Pole Cat Springs, Alabama, in 1804, leaned across the pine table to extend a cordial hand to his visitor. Abram Mordecai, who stood before him, although almost fifty, gave one the impression of a much younger man. Lean and lithe as a panther, with shaggy black hair and keen eyes, his distinctly Jewish features were so tanned and weather-beaten that he looked far more the Indian than the Jew. He nodded gayly to his employer before he flung himself into a chair, his gun-stock between his knees, his great ...
— The New Land - Stories of Jews Who Had a Part in the Making of Our Country • Elma Ehrlich Levinger

... slang and miner's parlance, burst from his gaping mouth at every turn of the sinuous trail. From the outset, he had constituted himself Carmen's special protector, although much to Rosendo's consternation, for the lank, awkward fellow, whose lean shoulders bent under the weight of some six-feet-two of height, went stumbling and tripping along the way, swaying against every tree and bush that edged the path, and constantly giving noisy vent to his opinions regarding trails in general, and those of the tropics in particular. His only ...
— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking

... lasts was taken down from the shelf, and these were tied to one end of the waxed-end and were let right down to the pavement. People collected in the street outside, and stood there staring. Pelle had to lean right out of the window, and bend over as far as he could, while Emil, as the oldest apprentice, laid the waxed-end over his neck. They were all on their feet now, with the exception of the young master; he took ...
— Pelle the Conqueror, Complete • Martin Andersen Nexo

... hidden virtue, that was in him, and which would show itself when the right time came? No, Fan could not believe that. Tom Starbrow and the poor pale-faced curate in his rusty coat were true strong men, and the woman that married either of them would not lean on a reed that would break and pierce her to the quick; and Captain Horton was also a strong man, although he had certainly been a very bad one. But this man, in spite of his nimble brains and eloquent tongue, was weak and unstable, hopelessly—fatally. The suffering and the poverty which ...
— Fan • Henry Harford

... but sat up with the grey shawl round her lean shoulders, glaring at her sister. "I'm better now," she panted. "Arthurs let me sit out too ...
— Actions and Reactions • Rudyard Kipling

... the host.' So will they speak; then to me would it be better far to face Achilles and either slay him and go home, or myself die gloriously before the city. Or what if I lay down my bossy shield and my stout helm, and lean my spear against the wall, and go of myself to meet noble Achilles and promise him that Helen, and with her all possessions that Alexandros brought in hollow ships to Troy, the beginning of strife, we will give to the Sons of Atreus to take away, and therewithal ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer (Lang, Leaf, Myers trans.)

... in with his army, by Gray's Inn Lane, Chancery Lane, and the Strand. They appeared to the citizens a very rough and battered soldiery indeed after their month's march through the English snows, the horses especially lean and ragged. That night, and all Saturday and Sunday, Monk was in quarters at Whitehall, receiving distinguished visitors. Though asked to take his seat in the Council of State on Saturday, he declined to do so till he should ...
— The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 • David Masson

... mind that this was not altogether a safe man to trust with her secret. Faithful he was, no doubt; but a fool might be even more dangerous than a traitor. Still, she had said too much to be silent, and she felt the need of some ally to whom she could talk—upon whom she could at least pretend to lean when the weight of her ...
— The Lion's Brood • Duffield Osborne

... were wounded, Limnaeus mortally; but Peukestas managed to stand firm, while Alexander despatched the Indian with his own hand. Alexander was wounded in many places, and at last received a blow on the neck with a club, which forced him to lean his back against the wall, still facing the enemy. The Macedonians now swarmed round him, snatched him up just as he fainted away, and carried him insensible to his tent. A rumour now ran through the camp that he was dead, and his attendants with great ...
— Plutarch's Lives Volume III. • Plutarch

... the senatorial star of my hopes one day, when my purse had become as lean as a June shad, 'Tom, there is a place of $800 a year, I have in view. A Senator is interfering, but I think it can be managed. You must have patience, these things take time. I will write to you as early as any ...
— Red-Tape and Pigeon-Hole Generals - As Seen From the Ranks During a Campaign in the Army of the Potomac • William H. Armstrong

... stop and rest," cried he; "but why will you not lean upon me? surely this is no time for scruples, and for idle and unnecessary scruples, Miss Beverley can never find ...
— Cecilia vol. 2 - Memoirs of an Heiress • Frances (Fanny) Burney (Madame d'Arblay)

... "Lean on my arm, dear Father, and let us go. We will walk very, very slowly, and if we feel tired we can rest ...
— The Adventures of Pinocchio • C. Collodi—Pseudonym of Carlo Lorenzini

... was burning fiercely above. Suddenly a group of objects attracted my attention. Beneath one of the largest of the trees, upon the grass, was a kind of low tent or booth, from the top of which a thin smoke was curling; beside it stood a couple of light carts, whilst two or three lean horses or ponies were cropping the herbage which was growing nigh. Wondering to whom this odd tent could belong, I advanced till I was close before it, when I found that it consisted of two tilts, like those of waggons, placed upon the ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow

... when a step on the piazza below made him come to the rail again and lean over. It was Phyl. She vanished and then reappeared again, leaving the lower piazza and coming right out into the garden. He waited till the sun had caught her in both hands, holding her against the background of the cherokee roses, then he called ...
— The Ghost Girl • H. De Vere Stacpoole

... than ever. 'Go on deck,' says the captain. 'Get rid of the cod's head, and come back to the cabin.' Off I go, and back I come. 'Boiled leg of mutton and trimmings,' says the captain, and helps me. 'No fat, sir,' says I. 'Fat's the cure,' says the captain, and makes me eat it. 'Lean's the cure,' says the captain, and makes me eat it. 'Steady?' says the captain. 'Sick,' says I. 'Go on deck,' says the captain; 'get rid of the boiled leg of mutton and trimmings and come back to the cabin.' Off I go, staggering—back I come, more dead than alive. 'Deviled kidneys,' ...
— The Frozen Deep • Wilkie Collins

... gleaner bringing down her one sheaf of corn to an old watermill, itself mossy and rent, scarcely able to get its stones to turn. An ill-bred dog stands, joyless, by the unfenced stream; two country boys lean, joyless, against a wall that is half broken down; and all about the steps down which the girl is bringing her sheaf, the bank of earth, flowerless and rugged, testifies only of its malignity; and in the black and sternly rugged ...
— Lectures on Landscape - Delivered at Oxford in Lent Term, 1871 • John Ruskin

... But whensoever God may take me hence, to reckon yourselves then comfortless, as though your chief comfort stood in me—therein would you make, methinketh, a reckoning very much as though you would cast away a strong staff and lean upon a rotten reed. For God is, and must be, your comfort, and not I. And he is a sure comforter, who (as he said unto his disciples) never leaveth his servants comfortless orphans, not even when he departed from his disciples by death. ...
— Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation - With Modifications To Obsolete Language By Monica Stevens • Thomas More

... His labor kept him lean for twenty years; and many a time he learned how salt his food who fares upon another's bread,—how steep his path who treadeth up and down another's stairs. But Dante saw and conquered,—realizing what he had to do, knowing how to do it, being worthy of his work. Therefore, ...
— A Manual of the Art of Fiction • Clayton Hamilton

... yet all the time it fears him. He has a marvellous power over it; its narrow, wicked light eyes are fixed on his face; it never looks away. Now he begins to play to it on a little flute; it is dancing, swaying its lean unlovely body to and fro and up and down in time with the tune. He puts down his pipe and makes a motion to it as if he were mesmerising it, passing his hands this way and that, until it comes to him and puts its flat head on his shoulder, nozzling into ...
— Round the Wonderful World • G. E. Mitton

... rural employments and amusements, that he sighed when his carriage stopped opposite to the old hackney-coach, which Archibald had kept in attendance at the place where they had left it. While the coachman again bridled his lean cattle, which had been indulged with a bite of musty hay, the Duke cautioned Jeanie not to be too communicative to her landlady concerning what had passed. "There is," he said, "no use of speaking of matters till they are actually settled; and you may refer the good lady to Archibald, if ...
— The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... back in a feminine way at Frank Nelsen, a tall, lean guy of nineteen, butch-haircutted and snub featured. But he was the purposeful, studious kind, more an observer and a personal doer than a leader; he hadn't much time for the encouraging smiles of girls, and donning even ...
— The Planet Strappers • Raymond Zinke Gallun

... becoming a little child. But behind and after this, there is a mystery revealed to but few, namely, that if the soul is to go on into higher spiritual blessedness it must become a woman. Yes, however manly thou be among men, it must learn to love being dependent; must lean on God, not solely from distress or alarm, but because it does not like independence or loneliness.... God is not a stern judge, exacting every tittle of some law from us.... He does not act towards us (spiritually) by generalities... but His perfection consists ...
— Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman • Giberne Sieveking

... securely with buckskin thongs, the other ends of the pole being imbedded in the ground. Other smaller saplings were trimmed and laid across the slanting poles, and on them were piled layer after layer of fan-like palmetto leaves. In a short space of time they had completed a lean-to which would protect them from any storm they were likely to experience at this season ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely

... was once a man who had a mysterious exhibition of an animal, quite unknown to naturalists, called "the wusser." Those curious individuals who desired to see the wusser were introduced into an apartment where appeared before them nothing more than a little lean shrivelled hideous blear-eyed mangy pig. Everyone cried out "Swindle!" and "Shame!" "Patience, gentlemen, be heasy," said the showman: "look at that there hanimal; it's a perfect phenomaly of hugliness: ...
— Catherine: A Story • William Makepeace Thackeray

... silence on her side, she rose from her chair, In dead silence she stood erect on the hearth-rug, and faced her husband in widow's weeds. He took one step nearer to her, and stopped again. He lifted his hand, and pointed with his lean brown ...
— Armadale • Wilkie Collins

... slender body lay motionless on a narrow, ragged mat. The little white feet of the sick girl almost touched the threshold. Near to them squatted a benevolent-looking old man, who wore only a coarse apron, and sitting all in a heap, bent forward now and then, rubbing the child's feet with his lean hands and muttering a few words ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... Coates's lean Quixotic form, being duly clothed in velvets and in silks, and his bonnet richly fraught with diamonds, (whence his appellation,) his entrance on the stage was greeted by such a general crowing, (in allusion to the large cocks, which as his crest adorned his harness,) that the angry and affronted ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, - Vol. 10, No. 283, 17 Nov 1827 • Various

... were at work all night attending to the wounded. No alarm was given by the outposts during the night, and as when morning broke there were no signs of the enemy, the men were allowed to fall out. A herd of lean cattle left by the Arabs was discovered not far off, and the Hussars went out in pursuit of them; the tired horses were, however, no match in point of speed for the cattle, but a few of them were shot, cut up, and a supply ...
— The Dash for Khartoum - A Tale of Nile Expedition • George Alfred Henty

... head of the vessel from being seen from the stern. Two men only were visible upon the after deck; the one lay reclining upon an arm chest, muffled up in a dread-nought pea jacket, the other paced up and down hurriedly, and with an air of deep pre-occupation. At intervals he would stop and lean over the gang-way, apparently endeavouring to pierce through the fog and catch a glimpse of the adjacent shore, and, on these occasions, a profound sigh would burst from his chest. Then again he would resume his rapid walk, with the air of one who has resolved to conquer a weakness, and substitute ...
— The Canadian Brothers - or The Prophecy Fulfilled • John Richardson

... thee We lean, as the shoots to the parent tree; Bending in awe at thy glance of might;— First in the council, first in the fight! While our flag is fanned by the breath of fame, Glorious Virginia! we'll bless ...
— War Poetry of the South • Various

... His dispensations? Has she no blessed hope of a life beyond the grave? We could not insert your verses. "All else" is not "gone," whoever was removed, when you have "one that sticketh closer than a brother" to lean upon. Read St. John xiv.; indeed, you had better study the whole Gospel, and set yourself resolutely to devote yourself ...
— The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII: No. 353, October 2, 1886. • Various

... got her warmed up," said the man, who stood quietly intent, his lean hand on the throttle. ...
— The Cattle-Baron's Daughter • Harold Bindloss

... procure a pair of scales and weigh the different foods that are taken into the system. Reduce the diet then to about four ounces of starch or sugar material per day, one and a half ounces of fat, taken chiefly in the form of butter, and about six or seven ounces of albuminous food, such as lean meat or fish. This is the minimum that should be resorted to, and the patient can take more of each at first and reduce the diet gradually to this point. The proportion of the different food compounds, however, with the exception of figs, dates, grapes and nuts, should also be ...
— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke

... ants in his sandwich. It is unlikely that Joel's presence on these occasions added in any marked degree to the general hilarity, but Celia's satisfaction was unmistakable. She always sat beside him with an air of proprietorship, digging her sharp little elbow into the sparse cushioning of his lean thighs or when weary, dropping her frowsy head against his shoulder with an engaging certainty that it was there for that very purpose. Like many another who has defied capture till after middle life, Joel atoned for past immunity by ...
— Other People's Business - The Romantic Career of the Practical Miss Dale • Harriet L. Smith

... progress at the entrance to the Duck Inn. One man was apparently drunk; others were jeering on the skirts of the lean crowd. ...
— Clayhanger • Arnold Bennett

... of desert men one started forward to the palanquin, throwing off his burnous and gesticulating with thin naked arms, as if about to commit some violent act. It was the sand-diviner. Made fantastic and unreal by the whirling sand grains, Domini saw his lean face pitted with small-pox; his eyes, blazing with an intelligence that was demoniacal, fixed upon her; the long wound that stretched from his cheek to his forehead. The pleading that had been mingled with the almost tyrannical command of his demeanour had vanished now. He looked ferocious, arbitrary, ...
— The Garden Of Allah • Robert Hichens

... notwithstanding which Elizabeth Cady Stanton is likewise a candidate with considerable strength, favoring as she does the Copperheads, the Democratic party and other dead and buried remains of alleged disloyalty. Susan is lean, cadaverous and intellectual, with the proportions of a file and the voice of a hurdy-gurdy. She is the favorite of the convention. Mrs. Stanton is of intellectual stock, impressive in manner and disposed to henpeck the convention which of course calls out resistance and much cackling.... Susan ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper

... led him first through a wood, and he hadn't gone very far when he met a lean-looking wolf who stood still as he approached. The Prince asked him if he were hungry, and when the wolf said he was, he got down from his horse and said, 'If you are really as you say and look, you may take my horse ...
— The Green Fairy Book • Various

... lean and wizened, twisted like a vine-shoot, with long, dust-coloured hair and a melancholy, impassive face that seemed carved out of old oak. He put in an appearance at Saint-Elophe once every three or four months. He knocked at the doors of the houses ...
— The Frontier • Maurice LeBlanc

... tremulous and palpable light. Corinne, it will be remembered, knew Lord Neville by the reflection of his face in the water. In Miriam's case, however (owing to the agitation of the water, its transparency, and the angle at which she was compelled to lean over), no reflected image appeared; nor, from the same causes, would it have been possible for the recognition between Corinne and her lover to take place. The moon, indeed, flung Miriam's shadow at the bottom of the basin, as well as two more shadows of persons who had ...
— The Marble Faun, Volume I. - The Romance of Monte Beni • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... heard the steady tread of feet, the mysterious words of the officer on watch passing the course to his relief. Bells rang with sharp double clang. Through the open port he could hear the alternate boom and hiss of the sea under the bows. With the stately lift and lean of the ship there mingled ...
— Where the Blue Begins • Christopher Morley

... knots at his head and feet, and his hands so placed as dead bodies are usually fitted, to be shrouded and put into their coffin or grave. Upon this urn he thus stood, with his eyes shut, and with so much of the sheet turned aside as might show his lean, pale, and death- like face, which was purposely turned towards the east, from which he expected the second coming of his and our Saviour Jesus. In this posture he was drawn at his just height, and, when the picture was fully finished, he caused ...
— Andrew Lang's Introduction to The Compleat Angler • Andrew Lang

... arms the warlike Myrmidons. They all, like rav'ning wolves, of courage high, That on the mountain side have hunted down An antler'd stag, and batten'd on his flesh: Their chaps all dyed with blood, in troops they go, With their lean tongues from some black-water'd fount To lap the surface of the dark cool wave, Their jaws with blood yet reeking, unsubdued Their courage, and their bellies gorg'd with flesh; So round Pelides' valiant follower throng'd ...
— The Iliad • Homer

... Sekwebu said, "Did not I tell you that these people had hearts, while we were still at Linyanti?" All agreed that the character he had given was true, and some remarked, "Look! although we have been so long away from home, not one of us has become lean." It was a fact that we had been all well supplied either with meat by my gun or their own spears, or food from the great generosity of the inhabitants. Pangola promised to ferry us across the Zambesi, but failed to fulfill his promise. He seemed to wish to avoid offending ...
— Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa - Journeys and Researches in South Africa • David Livingstone

... of desolation swept over the girl as the full realization of the situation burst upon her, and the blackness of despair filled her soul with anguish. She was alone. She had no one to lean upon. No ear to which she could impart her sorrows. Her mother a prisoner like herself. Her father—a fugitive wandering she knew not whither. As the bitterness of her lot assailed her in all its force she could no longer ...
— In Doublet and Hose - A Story for Girls • Lucy Foster Madison

... to lean aff that little parcel there, sir," said he, as he displaced from its position beneath my elbow, one of the paper packages the ...
— The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Vol. 2 • Charles James Lever

... Ned had been watching sprang up from their table and dashed toward the front of the place, and all was confusion in an instant. The sailor who had come in with Jimmie attempted to lean carelessly back in his chair and toppled over on the floor, where he lay with the slippered feet of the attendants striking him in their rush for ...
— Boy Scouts in the Philippines - Or, The Key to the Treaty Box • G. Harvey Ralphson

... be real in all things. I do not approve of artificial coloring; so, to save you from temptation, I shall put it out of your reach!" replied her husband, throwing the flacon out into the street. A lean, hungry dog, prowling about in search of food, rushed to the spot—hoping, no doubt, that it was a morsel from the rich man's table—but no sooner had his nose touched the spot, then, uttering a ...
— May Brooke • Anna H. Dorsey

... down at the top of the steps that led to the door of the dugout, so that Martin found himself looking into the lean, sensitive face, stained a little with blood about the mouth, of the wounded man. His eyes followed along the shapeless bundles of blood-flecked uniform till they suddenly turned away. Where the middle of the man had been, where had been the ...
— One Man's Initiation—1917 • John Dos Passos

... rests the warrior's head; And we will sit in Twilight's face, and see The sweet Moon glancing through the Tooa[370] tree, 10 The lofty accents of whose sighing bough Shall sadly please us as we lean below; Or climb the steep, and view the surf in vain Wrestle with rocky giants o'er the main, Which spurn in columns back the baffled spray. How beautiful are these! how happy they, Who, from the toil and ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron

... boats were swinging round with the force of the tide, and saw that all hands on board the steamer were running forward quite frantically. Still, in the same moment, I saw the prisoner start up, lean across his captor, and pull the cloak from the neck of the shrinking sitter in the galley. Still in the same moment, I saw that the face disclosed, was the face of the other convict of long ago. Still, in the same moment, ...
— Great Expectations • Charles Dickens

... was sitting among her numerous progeny, securing the debris of the dinner from their rapacious paws, and endeavouring to make two very unruly boys consume the portions of fat which had been supplied to them with, as they loudly declared, an unfairly insufficient quantum of lean. As the girl was good-natured enough to leave both doors wide open, Frank had the full advantage of ...
— The Kellys and the O'Kellys • Anthony Trollope

... some means of deliverance, but received no inspiration. Again she drew out her watch. Then her eye rested for a second on the little key that hung on her watch chain. It was the key to the lean-to in which David kept his aeroplane. Like a flash the way was revealed to her. But would she be able to carry out the daring design that had sprung into her mind? She would try, at any rate. With an unconcern that she was far from feeling, Grace walked ...
— Grace Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School • Jessie Graham Flower

... said Simon. "It's too cold to stay here, we must be getting home. There now, take my stick, and if you're feeling weak, lean on ...
— What Men Live By and Other Tales • Leo Tolstoy

... off down the road, away from Bloomfield, and shortly he heard the motor start and the grind of wheels. He looked back. He saw her lean over as though to speak to Claybrook. And then he saw Claybrook turn his face toward hers. They were ...
— Stubble • George Looms

... without saying good-bye to anybody. I suppose they all crowded to the window to look after me as I disappeared, for the last thing I heard was Mrs. Morris' voice saying, 'Don't, Johnny; you'll fall out if you lean over so far. Papa will get you another bird. Don't grieve so hard. ...
— Dickey Downy - The Autobiography of a Bird • Virginia Sharpe Patterson

... ground, that on all sides Delicious odour breathed. A pleasant air That intermitted never, never veer'd, Smote on my temples, gently as a wind Of softest influence, at which the sprays, Obedient all, lean'd trembling to that part Where first the holy mountain casts his shade, Yet were not so disordered, but that still Upon their top the feathered quiristers Applied their wonted art, and with full joy Welcomed those hours of prime, and warbled shrill Amid the leaves that to their jocund ...
— Ravenna, A Study • Edward Hutton

... lean and flop-eared was scratching industriously under Aunt Carrie's chair. It was a still summer day and the flies droned ceaselessly. A well nearby creaked as the dripping bucket was drawn to the top by a granddaughter who had come in from the field to get a cool drink. Aunt Carrie ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves - Georgia Narratives, Part 3 • Works Projects Administration

... sunset, a hospital doolie was set down in the verandah, and from it emerged Paul Wyndham—a long lean figure of a man, whose most notable features were deep steadfast eyes, neither blue nor grey; a mouth of extraordinary gentleness and capacity for endurance; and the grave quietness of movement and speech, that may mean power in ...
— The Great Amulet • Maud Diver

... downward, of course. A fire is to be made at the roots of one of the trees. This, with plenty of boughs, may be made to stand a pretty stiff rain; but it is only a damp arbor, and no camp, properly speaking. A forest camp should always admit of a bright fire in front, with a lean-to or shed roof overhead, to reflect the fire heat on the bedding below. Any camp that falls short of this, lacks the requirements of warmth, brightness and healthfulness. This is why I discard all ...
— Woodcraft • George W. Sears

... under the kindling influence of the drink, they express their good will by giving material tokens, each one to his friend or to one whose friendship he desires to gain. These tokens consist of handfuls of meat—lean, fat, bone, gristle, or anything—smeared with salt and pepper, and bestowed by one friend into the mouth of another without any consideration of the proportion existing between the size of the mouth and the size of the gift. It is not good etiquette ...
— The Manbos of Mindano - Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir • John M. Garvan

... The blue sky spread high overhead Peeps thro' in mild disdain. All nature laughs and jeers and chaffs When the Swank goes out to walk; But every Glug bows low his head, And says in tones surcharged with dread, "Bow low, bow low, Glugs lean, Glugs fat!" But the North wind snatches off his hat, And flings it high, and shrieks to ...
— The Glugs of Gosh • C. J. Dennis

... Tamer- chains of the late age, which had nothing in them but the scenical strutting and furious vociferation to warrant them to the ignorant gapers. He knows it is his only art so to carry it, as none but artificers perceive it. In the meantime, perhaps, he is called barren, dull, lean, a poor writer, or by what contumelious word can come in their cheeks, by these men who, without labour, judgment, knowledge, or almost sense, are received or preferred before him. He gratulates them and their fortune. Another age, or ...
— Discoveries and Some Poems • Ben Jonson

... no idea how prettee place dis is, leetle leddy, in de summertime. A vonderful place to be happy in. De big falls dey make music all day and at night dey sings you to sleep, like de modder she sings leetle babies. Und de big birches dey lean ofer, so beautiful, and de birds dey comes all rount, nesting in all de bushes. Oh, such a vonderful place for a man and a voman to love, dem falls of dat Roaring Rifer! Hugo he cleared such a goot piece, oder side of dat leetle hill, vhere de oats vould grow fine. And down by de Rifer, ...
— The Peace of Roaring River • George van Schaick

... his two lean brown hands on the keys. For a long minute he did not answer. Then: "By thinking about it all the time. And working like hell.... And you've got to be selfish ... You've got ...
— Half Portions • Edna Ferber

... which he regretted, but which, after hearing Mathias, he would not be without; for to rid himself of it he would have to sacrifice the spirit to the outer form; as well might he offer sacrifice to the heathen gods; and he could not take his eyes off the tall, lean figure showing against the blue sky, for Mathias spoke from the balcony, flinging his grey locks from his forehead, uncertain if he should break into another eloquent period or call upon Paul to speak. He was curious to hear Paul, having divined a quick intelligence ...
— The Brook Kerith - A Syrian story • George Moore

... dropped from his hand, and he had to lean against the table in order not to sink to the ground. Major Teimer drew a white handkerchief from his pocket and waved it in the air. The Tyrolese ceased firing immediately, and deafening cheers burst forth ...
— Andreas Hofer • Lousia Muhlbach

... the sink; and this seemed to me a refinement of luxurious living; for at home, when we did wash plates, we merely held them under the tap till the remains of food ran off, and we never thought of drying them. When I returned to the bedroom Paragot was dressed for the day. His long lean wrists and hands protruded far through the sleeves of an old brown jacket. He wore a grey flannel shirt and an old bit of black ribbon done up in a bow by way of a tie; his slouch hat, once black, was now green with age, and his boots were innocent of blacking. ...
— The Beloved Vagabond • William J. Locke

... they fight, and the result is more mixed than a wet fishing-line next morning. A great deal of trouble can be avoided by scientific use of the whip. Every Inuit boy prides himself as being a master of the long lash; but it is easy to flick at a mark on the ground, and difficult to lean forward and catch a shirking dog just behind the shoulders when the sleigh is going at full speed. If you call one dog's name for "visiting," and accidentally lash another, the two will fight it out at once, and stop all the others. ...
— The Second Jungle Book • Rudyard Kipling

... being able to endure Hardship, so also does that of the Mind. And the great Principle and Foundation of all Virtue and Worth is plac'd in this:—That a Man is able to deny himself his own Desires, cross his own Inclinations, and purely follow what Reason directs as best, tho' the Appetite lean the other ...
— THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION • ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY

... the siege had lasted he had been as a brother to them — keeping up their spirits by his cheerfulness, looking after their safety, and as far as possible after their comfort, and acting as the adviser and almost as the head of the house. His aunt was almost equally affected, for she had come to lean entirely upon him and to regard ...
— By Pike and Dyke: A Tale of the Rise of the Dutch Republic • G.A. Henty

... over the window sill, bent his lean body to pass through the square opening, and drew the other leg outside. He startled his horse, which had walked around there out of the wind, but he caught the bridle-reins and led him a few steps farther where he would ...
— The Flying U's Last Stand • B. M. Bower

... that Barkley lived, for the resort to weapons was the only remedy known in that land, and Dan Anderson knew the creed, as Barkley should have known it. His weapon leaped out in his hand as he drew back, his lean body bent in the curve of the fanged rattler about to strike. He did strike, but not with the point of flame. The heavy revolver came to a level, but the hooked finger did not press the trigger. Instead, the cylinder smote Porter Barkley full upon the temple, and he fell like a log. Dan Anderson ...
— Heart's Desire • Emerson Hough

... red—and it might NOT. Perhaps the faintest suspicion of lean fringed it or you might moodily survey a square inch of fat—if there was not a buckshee inch of rind. The flowing locks of hair with which this bacon was sometimes adorned has convinced one that a number ...
— Norman Ten Hundred - A Record of the 1st (Service) Bn. Royal Guernsey Light Infantry • A. Stanley Blicq

... The pride and conceit of this actor had risen to such a pitch, Nashe informs us in his Anatomy of Absurdity (1589), that he had the "temerity to encounter with those on whose shoulders all arts do lean." This last is a plain reference to George Peele, whom he had recently described in his Menaphon "Address" as "The Atlas of Poetry." In the following year Greene refers to the same encounter in ...
— Shakespeare's Lost Years in London, 1586-1592 • Arthur Acheson

... sound of wheels, behind the house; and then, unannounced, as one familiar with the place, Veronica Serra came swiftly down the walk towards the pair. Ghisleri rose to his feet,—a tall, fair man, sunburnt, lean and strong, with bright blue eyes,—and Bianca turned in her chair, with a smile, and held out her hand, as she ...
— Taquisara • F. Marion Crawford

... present to consist of three children: the funds were not sufficient for more. One was the child of the matron, and the other two were Lovedy Kelland and the daughter of a widow in ill health, whose family were looking very lean and ill cared for. Mrs. Kelland was very unwilling to give Lovedy up, she had always looked to receiving the apprentice fee from the Burnaby bargain for her as soon as the child was fourteen, and she had a strong ...
— The Clever Woman of the Family • Charlotte M. Yonge

... could say anything, the door opened and a tall, lean man stepped into the foggy air of the room. "You are broiling a lobster?" he ...
— Anything You Can Do ... • Gordon Randall Garrett

... sitting upon the tiled roof of a house. They had neither an air of sleeping nor resting. They were waiting. She fought off a horrible ghastly idea before its full realization. These rebels and guerrillas—what lean, yellow, bearded wretches! They curiously watched Link as he went working over the car. No two were alike, and all were ragged. They had glittering eyes sunk deep in their heads. They wore huge sombreros of brown and black ...
— The Light of Western Stars • Zane Grey

... hope in this world for the Prodigal, who has a sharp and evil lesson, and comes crawling home to claim the love he had despised; but for the elder brother, with his blameless service and his chilly heart, what hope is there for him? He must content himself—and perhaps it is not so lean a benediction after all—with the tender words, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that ...
— The Silent Isle • Arthur Christopher Benson

... Mondragon was about 30 years of age, of an ordinary make, but lean and muscular; he had two little twinkling eyes that rolled in his head, and threatened everybody he looked at; a very flat nose, placed between red whiskers that curled up to his very temples; and a manner of speaking so rough and passionate that his words ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 • E. Cobham Brewer

... and a rusty knife in peeling and slicing a large pumpkin, of which the fragments, so soon as they were in a fitting state, were plunged into the pot. A quantity of onion skins and tomata stalks, some rusty bacon rind, the skin of a lean rabbit, and some feathers that might have belonged either to a crow or a chicken, bestrewed the ground, affording intelligible hints as to a few of the heterogeneous materials already committed to the ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 363, January, 1846 • Various

... twelfth. There is this difference between the two ages, that the medieval romanticists are freer and more original than the moderns who made a business out of tales of terror and wonder, and tried to fatten their lean kine on the pastures of "Gothic" or ...
— Epic and Romance - Essays on Medieval Literature • W. P. Ker

... small slaughter-houses, the obnoxious practice prevails of maintaining a herd of swine to consume the entrails of the slaughtered animals, and a more fearsome and disgusting spectacle than a dozen lean, active hogs fighting over recently deposited entrails and wallowing up to their bellies in filth can hardly be imagined. Nor is this any fanciful picture. The writer has seen it over and over again, the income ...
— Rural Hygiene • Henry N. Ogden

... without some message, and none other from him to her could be a true message. It could not hurt her. It would not even give her the trouble to think whether she had decided well. He quite understood the nature of the love he wanted,—a love that would have felt it to be all happiness to lean upon his bosom. Without this love he would not have wished to take her;—and with such love as that he knew he could not fill her heart. Therefore it was that he would satisfy himself with walking round the churchyard of Newton Peele, and ...
— Ralph the Heir • Anthony Trollope

... credit becomes the watchword of high finance. Thus the great money master will not believe that periods of depression are of necessity ruinous. It is true that no great profits will be made in such years of depression. But the lean years will not last for ever. Industry during the period of deflation goes through a process like that of an over-fat man taking a Turkish bath. The extravagances are eliminated, new invention and energy spring up to ...
— Success (Second Edition) • Max Aitken Beaverbrook

... out of here"—he waved his hand toward the creek—"is one-half yours. I decided on that long ago. Never mind asking me why." He clapped Santry on the back. "It's because we're partners in fact, if not in name. Because you've stuck with me through all the lean years. That's reason enough." ...
— Hidden Gold • Wilder Anthony

... cunning cur did mean To eat their mutton (which was lean) Reserv'd for breakfast, for the ...
— Woodstock; or, The Cavalier • Sir Walter Scott

... and began to look down into the water. The water was not deep, and the bottom was smooth and sandy. They glided rapidly along over these sands. Marco's leaning caused the boat to incline a little to one side; but Forester, instead of asking him not to lean over so, just moved himself a little in the contrary direction, and thus ...
— Forests of Maine - Marco Paul's Adventures in Pursuit of Knowledge • Jacob S. Abbott

... just put your arm around my neck and hold steady while I lift. That's it, get your weight on your right foot, lean forward, and I'll get you atop this beast. Ah! that's the stuff, you're getting stronger every minute—now steady just a moment, let me pick up that oil bottle—all right—Get up! Bess—steady, girl, keep your hoofs ...
— "Say Fellows—" - Fifty Practical Talks with Boys on Life's Big Issues • Wade C. Smith

... onion, One medium sized carrot, One medium sized turnip, One faggot of soup herbs, Also one and one-half pounds lean meat ...
— Mrs. Wilson's Cook Book - Numerous New Recipes Based on Present Economic Conditions • Mary A. Wilson

... never did he have any care for himself, any thought of his own comfort, which could distract his attention from the gentle object of his love and care, He would follow her up and down, waiting till she should tire, and lean upon his arm—he would sit opposite to her, content to watch and look, until she raised her head and smiled upon him as of old—he would discharge by stealth those household duties which tasked her powers too heavily—he would rise in ...
— Ten Girls from Dickens • Kate Dickinson Sweetser

... most of the ultimate results. Choose carcasses between a hundred and seventy-five and a hundred and fifty pounds in weight, of a fresh pinky white hue, free of cuts, scratches, or bruises, the skin scraped clean, and firm, not slimy, to touch, the fat firm and white, the lean a lively purplish pink. Two inches of clear fat over the backbone, and the thick of the ribs should be the limit. Anything more is wasteful—unless there is a great need of lard in the kitchen. The pig should be chilled throughout, but not ...
— Dishes & Beverages of the Old South • Martha McCulloch Williams

... Pawnees, who carried of his scalp. I've not left him unavenged, though. My mother was a red-skin, and belonged to this tribe, and I have no wish to quit them. But come, friend, you have done eating, and a man who can eat is not in a very bad way. Lean on us, and we will take you to our tents. They are not more than ...
— Dick Onslow - Among the Redskins • W.H.G. Kingston

... be the first of many such times that Chris was to lean out so, king of this new world spread out below him as far as the eye could reach. A vast and absorbing panorama lay beneath and beyond him. Immediately below turned Water Street, narrow and muddy, while the broad wharves and ...
— Mr. Wicker's Window • Carley Dawson

... with them, they perseveringly 'kept on,' till it stopped, the disease retiring in despair from their determination to be well. Fat parties, who ought to have been dropsical, were not so at all—they grew fatter, and flourished like green bay trees; lean persons, threatening to go off in a decline, declining to do so, remained. Adventurous little boys, falling from the tops of high trees to the stony ground, sustained no injuries beyond the maternal chastisement and brandy-and-brown-paper of home; babies defied croup and colic with ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol 2, No 6, December 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... good I presume as that given to British prisoners by our own government; had our lodging and prison-house been equal to our food, I never should have complained. The establishment was blessed with a good man for a physician, named M'Grath, an Irishman, a tall, lean gentleman, with one eye, but of a warm and good heart. We never shall cease to admire his disposition, nor forget ...
— A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, 2nd ed. • Benjamin Waterhouse

... dull-looking young man, whose very swarthy, lean and bony face certainly bore the expression of melancholy and distress described by Genevive. Indeed, the marks of suffering were visible in all his harassed features, as well as in ...
— The Eight Strokes of the Clock • Maurice Leblanc

... bears are very fat, for they have had plenty of berries and roots to eat. They are so fat that they can stand the long fast during the Bear's Night; but when they go out in the spring from their snow cover, they are very lean. We dread the bear more in the spring than during any part of the summer, for he is voraciously hungry all the time and goes after cattle, ...
— The Land of the Long Night • Paul du Chaillu

... southern moon, Far o'er the mountain breaks the day too soon. In thy dark eyes' splendor, where the warm light loves to dwell, Weary looks yet tender, speak their fond farewell. 'Nita, Juanita! Ask thy soul if we should part, 'Nita, Juanita! Lean ...
— The Guns of Shiloh • Joseph A. Altsheler

... and slender girls; queer girls with lean, wiry bodies; deceptive girls with bodies curiously plastic under the appearance of fragility; here a young miracle of physical culture; there a girl with the pointed breasts and flying shoulders, the limbs, ...
— The Combined Maze • May Sinclair

... Sam, but if it wuz, centuries have been spent by the white race in teachin' this people to be dependent and helpless, to not think for themselves, to lean entirely on the judgment and justice of the white people (weak reeds to lean on anon ...
— Samantha at the St. Louis Exposition • Marietta Holley

... who it is who hears it. Good news for those who hate King James; bad for those who love priests and popery. How can such a mad fool as I am, Sir Philip Branksome, guess to which side so many gallant gentlemen and fair ladies may lean?" ...
— The Brown Mask • Percy J. Brebner

... say thus unto Pantagruel: Sir, were it not expedient for my purpose to put a branch or two of curious laurel betwixt the quilt and bolster of my bed, under the pillow on which my head must lean? There is no need at all of that, quoth Pantagruel; for, besides that it is a thing very superstitious, the cheat thereof hath been at large discovered unto us in the writings of Serapion, Ascalonites, Antiphon, Philochorus, Artemon, and Fulgentius Planciades. I could say as much ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais

... heads celery into small pieces and boil it in three pints of water with one-fourth pound of lean ham minced; simmer gently for an hour. Strain through a sieve and return to the pan adding one quart of milk, salt and pepper; thicken with two tablespoonfuls of butter and two tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed to a paste. Serve with whipped ...
— Stevenson Memorial Cook Book • Various

... was no mistaking the human voice this time—and Priscilla got up from where she sat, though trembling so much that she had to lean one hand on the table ...
— Innocent - Her Fancy and His Fact • Marie Corelli

... have I a fever, the consuming fever of wrath, for again hath the tax-gatherer been abroad. Robbed are our tables of fat, milk and honey; lean are our bellies for food; stripped are our bodies of covering. Yet doth the tax ever increase that Herod may add to his vast stores. It is tax—tax—tax until at night the waves of the sea beat against the shore ...
— The Coming of the King • Bernie Babcock

... the question in a fierce, sudden whisper. His lean fingers clasped over the girl's hand. Sir Charles was leaning back in his chair talking gaily. Nobody seemed to heed the drama that was going on in their midst. Beatrice's eyes filled ...
— The Slave of Silence • Fred M. White

... rollicking fast men—if we may use a word becoming customary in our own day—who whirl in, in their curricles: there are barouches and chairs, spring wagons and carts, all full, approaching in every way from a sober walk to a furious headlong dash, all "going to the races." There are horsemen who lean forward, horsemen who lean back; furious, excited horsemen urging their steeds with whip and spur; cool, quiet horsemen, who ride erect and slowly; there are, besides, pedestrians of every class and appearance, old and young, ...
— Southern Literature From 1579-1895 • Louise Manly

... the fakir, in a shrill tone of approval that drew all eyes to the lean and naked and ash-besprinkled figure seated at the foot of the veranda steps. "Shabash! shabash!" he cried, again ...
— Tales of Destiny • Edmund Mitchell

... Bhaga, which unite to form the Chenab, flow through Lahul and the few villages are situated at a height of 10,000 feet in their elevated valleys. The people are Buddhists. In summer the population is increased by "Gaddi" shepherds from Kangra, who drive lean flocks in the beginning of June over the Rotang and take them back from the Alpine pastures in the middle of September ...
— The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir • Sir James McCrone Douie

... not so far off that she needed to call very loud. He heard and started with eager interest. He knew the voice, sent his eyes looking and presently found her who called him. With his great lean muscular arms he sent the crowd right and left like water, and ...
— Weighed and Wanting • George MacDonald

... to get folks enough to buy the things for them. When they see a likely lookin' tourist edging around the stand they use him, if they can. If they can't it's a 'short day' for Cripple Andy, but that doesn't worry him. 'The fat and the lean,' he calls it. Oh! I say, he's almost as rippin' as Dad ...
— Dorothy on a Ranch • Evelyn Raymond

... the Lean.—To a large extent the preceding article will suggest what is suitable here, remembering, however, that regular exercise will be also necessary in order to enable the muscles to increase in size. Green vegetables and fruits should be largely used in addition ...
— Papers on Health • John Kirk

... in that," Harvey said. "He knows how strongly Mr. Jackson and the girls lean toward the Crown, and would say anything that he thought would please Isabelle. I have spoken to her and she thinks that he is sincere; in fact, she has rather a good opinion of him. However, we shall see. It was rather curious ...
— True to the Old Flag - A Tale of the American War of Independence • G. A. Henty

... Henry and the almost middle-aged heiress Constance. A party in Sicily helped him; and the marriage and the coronation of the happy pair as King and Queen of Italy took place at Milan in January, 1186. Not only had the Emperor knocked away the staff upon which the Papacy had been disposed to lean its arm for more than a century; but he had actually picked it up and proposed to use it in the future for the purpose of belabouring the Popes. Moreover, he had really secured his object of a hereditary empire; for Henry, now King with his father ...
— The Church and the Empire - Being an Outline of the History of the Church - from A.D. 1003 to A.D. 1304 • D. J. Medley

... "Louis XIV.'s light infantry"—a nickname given by the Bonapartists to these venerable survivors of the Monarchy. To do it justice it ought to be made the principal object in the picture, and it is but an accessory. Imagine a lean, dry man, dressed like the former, but seeming to be only his reflection, or his shadow, if you will. The coat, new on the first, on the second was old; the powder in his hair looked less white, the gold of the fleurs-de-lis less bright, the shoulder straps more hopeless and ...
— The Purse • Honore de Balzac

... missionary abroad an' died in foreign parts. I mean the hussy's brother. He took up his father's work, feelin' a strong call. He was only a young boy when his sister went off, but he felt it dreadful. He was a hard man on the sinner. Preached hell and damnation all his days, he did. Lean over the pulpit, he would, his eyes flamin' fire an' his tongue shrivellin' folks in their pews, I ...
— The Thing from the Lake • Eleanor M. Ingram



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