Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Glean

Glean , transitive verb

[Old English glenen, Old French glener, glaner, French glaner, from Late Latin glenare; compare Welsh glan clean, glanh{not transcribed}u to clean, purify, or Anglo-Saxon gelm, gilm, a hand{not transcribed}ul.]

1.
To gather after a reaper; to collect in scattered or fragmentary parcels, as the grain left by a reaper, or grapes left after the gathering.
To glean the broken ears after the man That the main harvest reaps. — Shakespeare
2.
To gather from (a field or vineyard) what is left.
3.
To collect with patient and minute labor; to pick out; to obtain.
Content to glean what we can from... experiments. — Locke

Glean , intransitive verb

1.
To gather stalks or ears of grain left by reapers.
And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers. — Ruth ii. 3
2.
To pick up or gather anything by degrees.
Piecemeal they this acre first, then that; Glean on, and gather up the whole estate. — Pope

Glean , noun

A collection made by gleaning.
The gleans of yellow thyme distend his thighs. — Dryden

Glean , noun

Cleaning; afterbirth. [Obsolete] — Holland