Definition

Noun 1. The property of having little body fat; thinness; slenderness. 2. The quality of being meager, scanty, or poor; a lack of abundance or richness.

Usage and Examples

• Meaning 1 (Physical Thinness):
  • The athlete's leanness was a result of strict diet and intense training.
  • Despite his leanness, he was surprisingly strong.
• Meaning 2 (Meagerness/Scantiness):
  • The leanness of the harvest meant a difficult winter for the village.
  • The report was criticized for the leanness of its analysis.

Advanced Usage

• Economic/Financial Context: Often used to describe minimal profits, resources, or periods of low activity.
  • The company survived the leanness of the recession by cutting non-essential costs.
• Literary/Descriptive Context: Used to describe something lacking substance, detail, or ornamentation.
  • The leanness of the prose gave the novel a stark, powerful quality.

Variants and Related Words

• Lean (Adjective): Having little fat; meager or efficient.
  • lean meat, a lean budget, lean manufacturing
• Leanly (Adverb): In a lean manner.
• Leaning (Noun/V. present participle): A tendency or inclination.

Synonyms

• For Meaning 1: Thinness, slenderness, skinniness, spareness.
• For Meaning 2: Meagerness, scantiness, poverty, exiguity, sparseness, poorness.

Antonyms

• For Meaning 1: Fatness, obesity, plumpness.
• For Meaning 2: Abundance, richness, plenty, copiousness.

Notes on Meaning

The two meanings of leanness are connected by the core idea of "having less than what might be expected or desired." The first meaning is literal (lack of fat), while the second is figurative (lack of quantity or quality). The provided quote from George Eliot ("an exiguity of cloth that would only allow of miniature capes") is a classic example of the second meaning, describing a scantiness of material.

Noun

1. the property of having little body fat
2. the quality of being meager
   • an exiguity of cloth that would only allow of miniature capes-George Eliot