Definition of "lean"

But you ſay they do not accept of them, but delight rather to lean to their old Cuſtoms and Brehon Laws, though they be more unjuſt and alſo more inconvenient for the common People, as by your late Relation of them I have gathered.

a. 1600, Edmund Spenser, “A View of the State of Ireland. […]”, in The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser, volume VI, London: Jacob Tonson […], published 1715, page 1518

He lean'd not on his fathers but himself.

1864, Alfred Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], page 54

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.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, pages 374–375

Oppreſs'd with Anguiſh, panting, and o'reſpent, / His fainting Limbs against an Oak he leant.

1697, Virgil, “The Tenth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], page 533, lines 1187–1188

Jack Sprat would eat no fat, / His wife would eat no lean.

1639, or earlier, Anon: Jack Sprat

The intermediates and leans are the predominant morphotypes found at the SE-NHR seamounts […]

1986, Southwest Fisheries Center (U.S.), Collected Reprints (issue 1)

Obese Zuckers, compared to leans, consumed more food under free-feeding conditions.

2012, Obesity: New Insights for the Healthcare Professional, page 56

He leaned the mixture in an effort to cause a backfire through the carburetor, the generally accepted method of breaking the ice loose.

1938 July, Harold Blaine Miller, Dupont Miller, “Weather Hop”, in Boys' Life‎, Boy Scouts of America, page 25

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.

2002 July, Tom Benenson, “Can Your Engine Run Too Lean?”, in Flying‎, volume 129, number 7, page 73

Eyes real tight 'cause I'm chokin' the creep; vision messed up 'cause I'm drinkin' the lean.

2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown‎, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG), Sony BMG

"What's in the cup, let me see that / Girl, where the rest of that promethazine at?" / She said, "Cool, gotta run out to my Cadillac though / And I'll be like Fat Joe, and bring the lean back"

2020, “Those Kinda Nights”, in Music to Be Murdered By, performed by Eminem ft. Ed Sheeran