Forage vs Glean - What's the difference?

In obsolete terms the difference between forage and glean

is that forage is the demand for fodder etc by an army from the local population while glean is cleaning; afterbirth.

As nouns the difference between forage and glean

is that forage is fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses while glean is a collection made by gleaning.

As verbs the difference between forage and glean

is that forage is to search for and gather food for animals, particularly cattle and horses while glean is to collect (grain, grapes, etc.) left behind after the main harvest or gathering.

forage

English

Noun

(en noun)

Fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses.

* 1819 , :

“The hermit was apparently somewhat moved to compassion by the anxiety as well as address which the stranger displayed in tending his horse; for, muttering something about provender left for the keeper's palfrey, he dragged out of a recess a bundle of forage , which he spread before the knight's charger.

(Dryden)

An act or instance of foraging.

* Shakespeare

He [the lion] from forage will incline to play.

* Marshall

Mawhood completed his forage unmolested.

* 1860 September, “A Chapter on Rats”, in , volume 56, number 3, page 304:

‘My dears,’ he discourses to them — how he licks his gums, long toothless, as he speaks of his forages into the well-stored cellars:

(obsolete) The demand for fodder etc by an army from the local population

Verb

(forag)

To search for and gather food for animals, particularly cattle and horses.

* 1841 , , The Deerslayer , Chapter 8:

The message said that the party intended to hunt and forage through this region, for a month or two, afore it went back into the Canadas.

To rampage through, gathering and destroying as one goes.

* 1599 , , Henry V , Act 1, Scene 2:

And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince, / Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy, / Making defeat on the full power of France, / Whiles his most mighty father on a hill / Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp / Forage in blood of French nobility.

To rummage.

* 1898 , , The Wrecker :

Using the blankets for a basket, we sent up the books, instruments, and clothes to swell our growing midden on the deck; and then Nares, going on hands and knees, began to forage underneath the bed.

Derived terms

* forager

glean

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) , from (etyl).

Verb

(en verb)

To collect (grain, grapes, etc.) left behind after the main harvest or gathering.

* , Ruth 2:2,

Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace.

* Shakespeare

To glean the broken ears after the man / That the main harvest reaps.

To gather what is left in (a field or vineyard).

to glean a field

To gather information in small amounts, with implied difficulty, bit by bit.

* John Locke

content to glean what we can from experiments

* 8 December 2011 , BBC News, Iran shows film of captured US drone , available in http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16098562 :

He said Iran was "well aware of what priceless technological information" could be gleaned from the aircraft.

To frugally accumulate resources from low-yield contexts.

He gleaned a living from newspaper work for a few months, but in the summer went to a fishing village […] where […] he wrote his great historical drama, "Master Olof." (Translators Edith and Warner Oland on author .)

Synonyms

* (gather information) learn

Noun

(en noun)

A collection made by gleaning.

* Dryden

The gleans of yellow thyme distend his thighs.

Etymology 2

Noun

(obsolete) cleaning; afterbirth

(Holland)

(Webster 1913)

Anagrams

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