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Lean vs Lithe - What's the difference?

lean | lithe |

As verbs the difference between lean and lithe

is that lean is to incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating while lithe is to go.

As adjectives the difference between lean and lithe

is that lean is slim; not fleshy while lithe is mild; calm.

As a noun lithe is

shelter.

lean

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) ; via Proto-Indo-European with climate, cline.

Verb

  • To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating.
  • To incline in opinion or desire; to conform in conduct; with to'', ''toward , etc.
  • * (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
    • They delight rather to lean to their old customs.
  • To rest or rely, for support, comfort, etc.; with on'', ''upon'', or ''against .
  • * (1809-1892)
    • He leaned not on his fathers but himself.
  • * , chapter=23
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.}}
  • To hang outwards.
  • To press against.
  • * (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
    • His fainting limbs against an oak he leant .
    Derived terms
    * lean back * leaning * lean on * lean-to
    Related terms
    * climate * cline

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (of a person or animal) slim; not fleshy.
  • (of meat) having little fat.
  • Having little extra or little to spare; scanty; meagre.
    • a lean''' budget; a '''lean harvest
  • Of a fuel-air mixture, having more air than is necessary to burn all of the fuel; more air- or oxygen- rich than necessary for a stoichiometric reaction.
  • (printing, archaic) Of a character which prevents the compositor from earning the usual wages; opposed to fat.
    • lean copy, matter, or type
    Synonyms
    * See also

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To thin out (a fuel-air mixture): to reduce the fuel flow into the mixture so that there is more air or oxygen.
  • * {{quote-magazine
    • , year=1938 , month=July , author=Blaine and Dupont Miller , title=Weather Hop , page=25 , magazine=Boy's Life , publisher=Boy Scouts of America , issn=0006-8608 citation , passage=He leaned the mixture in an effort to cause a backfire through the carburetor, the generally accepted method of breaking the ice loose. }}
  • * {{quote-magazine
    • , year=2002 , month=July , author=Tom Benenson , title=Can Your Engine Run Too Lean? , volume=129 , issue=7 , page=73 , magazine=Flying , issn=0015-4806 citation , passage=Even the Pilot's Operating Handbooks (POH) for our training airplanes add to our paranoia with their insistence that we not lean the mixture until we're above 5000 feet density altitude. }}

    Etymology 3

    Icelandic (leyna)?; akin to (etyl) word for "deny". Compare .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To conceal.
    • (Ray)

    See also

    *

    References

    * *

    Anagrams

    * English ergative verbs English irregular verbs English terms with multiple etymologies ----

    lithe

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) lithen, from (etyl) . See also (l), (l).

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To go.

    • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) lithe, from (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (obsolete) Mild; calm.
    • ''lithe weather
  • slim but not skinny
    • lithe body
  • *
    • She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had thought to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe , polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.
  • Capable of being easily bent; pliant; flexible; limber
    • the elephant’s lithe proboscis.
  • * 1861 , , page 125
    • … she danced with a kind of passionate fierceness, her lithe body undulating with flexuous grace …
    Synonyms
    * lithesome, lissome,

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) lithen, from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (head)
  • (obsolete) To become calm.
  • (obsolete) To make soft or mild; soften; alleviate; mitigate; lessen; smooth; palliate.

    • Etymology 4

    From (etyl) lithen, from (etyl) . More at (l).

    Verb

    (lith)
  • (obsolete) To give ear; attend; listen.
  • To listen to.

    • Etymology 5

    Origin uncertain; perhaps an alteration of (lewth).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (Scotland) Shelter.
  • * 1932 , (Lewis Grassic Gibbon), Sunset Song :
    • So Cospatric got him the Pict folk to build a strong castle there in the lithe of the hills, with the Grampians dark and bleak behind it, and he had the Den drained and he married a Pict lady and got on her bairns and he lived there till he died.

    Anagrams

    *