leanness
(ˈliːnnɪs)
Also 1 hlǽnnes, -nys, 4 leenes, 4–5 lenesse, 5 lennesse, leynes, 5–6 lenenes(se, 6 leanenesse, leanes, Sc. leinnes.
[f. lean a. + -ness.]
The condition or quality of being lean; thinness; meagreness; poverty (of land); barrenness; etc.
| a 1000 in Napier Glosses 192/33 Macie, mid hlænnesse. c 1000 ælfric Hom. (Thorpe) I. 522 Hwæt is þæt man besette his geðanc on nyðerlicum þingum, buton swilce modes hlænnys? 1382 Wyclif Ezek. xxiv. 23 Ȝe shulen..faile for leenes in ȝoure wickidnessis. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. x. (1495) 116 Tomoche lenesse of the forheed and reuelynge of the skynne. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 86 If þat..þe lymes ben mene bitwene fatnes & lenenes. c 1400 tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 115 He þat hauys a mene fface, in chekys and templys, bowynge to Lennesse. 1547 Borde Dyetary xvii. 276 The fatnes of flesshe is not so moche nutrytyue as the leenes of flesshe. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 104 Better all be fatte..Than linger in leannesse. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, i. i. 112 The poore King Reignier, whose large style Agrees not with the leannesse of his purse. 1611 Speed Theat. Gt. Brit. x. (1614) 19/1 A sand..which being spread upon the face of the earth, bettereth the leannesse thereof for grain. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 147 The women..incline rather to corpulency than leannesse. 1862 Stanley Jew. Ch. (1877) I. iv. 66 The sacred kine..fit symbols of the leanness or the fertility of future years. 1871 Morley Carlyle in Crit. Misc. Ser. i. 233 A most unlovely leanness of judgment. |