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.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Last updated May 30, 2026