Word
glean
US/ˈɡɫin/
UK/ɡlˈiːn/
Definition
v. to get small pieces of information or to collect small amounts of something. It is often used when you are trying to find out a secret or a hidden truth.
v. to gather or obtain information, especially in small amounts or from a difficult source. Often used in the context of intelligence gathering or extracting meaning from a text.
Examples
“The detective tried to glean some clues from the witness's story.”
“After hours of reading the dense report, she managed to glean a few key facts about the company's financial health.”
“While the official transcript was vague, the journalist managed to glean several important details about the diplomatic negotiations by cross-referencing public statements with private interviews.”
Examples
simple
“The detective tried to glean some clues from the witness's story.”
contextual
“After hours of reading the dense report, she managed to glean a few key facts about the company's financial health.”
complex
“While the official transcript was vague, the journalist managed to glean several important details about the diplomatic negotiations by cross-referencing public statements with private interviews.”
Real-World Examples
“Democrats have been demanding answers from the Pentagon in recent days to glean the extent of the issues on board and what is being done to address them.” “The amount of detail gleaned from the Artemis 2 photographs came as something of a surprise, and it showed how valuable even simple images of a solar eclipse taken near the moon can be.” “Photo by Toronto Police Service Based on that press conference, additional information was gleaned and shared Friday.” Etymology
The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenen (“to gather (heads of grain left by reapers), glean; to gather (things) together, collect”), from Old French glener, glainer (modern French glaner (“to gather, glean”)), from Late Latin glen(n)are, the present active infinitive of glen(n)ō (“to make a collection”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic glanos (“clean; clear”, adjective), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ǵʰleh₁- (“to glow, shine; to be glowing or shining”). The noun is derived from Late Middle English glene (“collection of heads of grain gathered by gleaning; head of grain”), from Old French glene, glane (“act of gleaning; legal right to glean”) (modern French glane (“act of gleaning”)), from glener, glainer (verb): see above. cognates * Medieval Latin glana, glena (“bundle of ears of grain”)
Possibly a variant of clean (“(UK, dialectal; noun) the afterbirth of a cow or sheep; (verb) of a cow or sheep: to bring forth the afterbirth”), possibly from clean (“to remove dirt from an object or place”), referring to an animal’s uterus being cleaned out by the delivery of the afterbirth.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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englishreference.com/q/glean