2. Wanting fullness, richness, sufficiency, or
productiveness; deficient in quality or contents; slender;
scant; barren; bare; mean; -- used literally and
figuratively; as, the lean harvest; a lean purse; a lean
discourse; lean wages. ``No lean wardrobe.'' --Shak.
Their lean and fiashy songs. --Milton.
What the land is, whether it be fat or lean. --Num.
xiii. 20.
Out of my lean and low ability I'll lend you
something. --Shak.
3. (Typog.) Of a character which prevents the compositor from
earning the usual wages; -- opposed to {fat}; as, lean
copy, matter, or type.
Syn: slender; spare; thin; meager; lank; skinny; gaunt.