lean-to, n. (and a.)
(ˈliːntuː)
Also 5 lenetoo, 7–8 leantoo, -toe, lentoo, 8 lento. 9 U.S. dial. leanter, linter.
[f. lean v.1 + to adv.]
A. n. ‘A building whose rafters pitch against or lean on to another building or against a wall’ (Gwilt); a penthouse.
| 1461 in Archæol. XXIII. 107 Emend' unius Lenetoo juxta parlur' annex'. Magn' Aule. 1618 R. Harris Samuel's Funeral To Rdr. (1622), Me thought it handsomer to lay all my stuffe vpon the foundation, then to set vp a leane-to. 1638 in T. Lechford Note-Bk. (1885) 54 And also the old house and lean-toos, yard and garden thereto belonging. 1639 Ibid. 217 Provided that the said Brackenbury shall have..liberty to make a leanto unto the end of the parlor. 1704 S. Knight Jrnl. (1865) 24 Shee conducted me to a parlour in a little back Lento. 1782 Phil. Trans. LXXII. 358 A wall is continued eastward..having a stable built against it as a lean-to. 1854 Hawthorne Eng. Note-Bks. (1883) I. 509 On one side of the church-tower there was a little penthouse, or lean-to,—merely a stone roof, about three or four feet high, and supported by a single pillar. 1861 Mrs. Stowe Pearl Orr's Isl. 10 A brown house of the kind that the natives call ‘lean-to’ or ‘linter’. 1884 Law Times Rep. LI. 238/2 An old lean-to facing Gower-street had been raised and a room erected above it. |
| transf. 1871 L. Stephen Playgr. Europe iv. (1894) 101 A ledge of snow..formed a kind of lean-to against the..precipitous rock. |
B. attrib. (or adj.) Belonging to or of the nature of a building such as that described in A. Also, placed so as to lean against something.
| 1649 in J. Merrill Hist. Amesbury (1880) 42 A payer of hinges of one of y⊇ doores & y⊇ railes y{supt} lie by y⊇ leantoo side. 1666 Dedham Rec. (1894) IV. 122 The said bridge or foot plankes and leaneto rayles. 1833 Marryat P. Simple xxi, The buildings appropriated for the prisoners were built with lean-to roofs on one side. 1860 Geo. Eliot Mill on Fl. i. iv, A lean-to pigsty. 1882 Stevenson New Arab. Nts. (1884) 236 They had set fire to the lean-to outhouse. |