glean
v.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.
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.
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.