Glean \Glean\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Gleaned; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Gleaning.] [OE. glenen, OF. glener, glaner, F. glaner, fr.
   LL. glenare; cf. W. glan clean, glanh?u to clean, purify, or
   AS. gelm, gilm, a hand?ul.]
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   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.
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            To glean the broken ears after the man
            That the main harvest reaps.          --Shak.
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   2. To gather from (a field or vineyard) what is left.
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   3. To collect with patient and minute labor; to pick out; to
      obtain.
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            Content to glean what we can from . . . experiments.
                                                  --Locke.
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Gleaning \Glean"ing\, n.
   The act of gathering after reapers; that which is collected
   by gleaning.
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         Glenings of natural knowledge.           --Cook.
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GLEANING. The act of gathering such grain in a field where it grew, as may, 
have been left by the reapers after the sheaves were gathered. 
     2. There is a custom in England, it is said, by which the poor are 
allowed to enter and glean upon another's land after harvest without being 
guilty of a trespass. 3 Bl. Com. 212 . But it has been decided that the 
community are not entitled to claim this privilege as a right. 1 Hen. Bl. 
51. In the United States, it is believed, no such right exists. This right 
seems to have existed in some parts of France. Merl. Rep. mot Glanage. As to 
whether gleaning would or would not amount to larceny, vide Woodf. Landl. & 
Ten. 242; 2 Russ. on Cr. 99. The Jewish law may be found in the 19th chapter 
of Leviticus, verses 9 and 10. See Ruth, ii. 2, 3; Isaiah, xvii. 6.