(Latin: to make a collection; to gather what is left after the reapers)

glean (GLEEN) (verb), gleans; gleaned; gleaning
1. To gather slowly and laboriously, bit by bit: Etymologists glean their knowledge from many classical sources.
2. To learn, to discover, or to find out; usually little by little or slowly: As a freelance writer, Sharon is barely gleaning how to make a decent living.

Lawyers glean, or go through every piece of evidence they can find in order to defend their clients.

3. To gather (grain or similar plant products) after the reapers or regular gatherers have finished and whatever they have left behind: In some countries, people glean, or pick up left over scraps of wheat, maize, oats, etc. which are left after the main harvesting process is completed.
4. Etymology: from Old French glener, from Late Latin glennare "to make a collection".
gleanable (adjective), more gleanable, most gleanable
1. Pertaining to the ability to procure information or objects that have been obtained over a period of time; especially, when they form a comprehensive whole: Henry has a large collection of gleanable tools that he has collected from flea markets and garage sales.
2. Relating to what is available and that can be picked over in search of relevant material: At the national library, Maxine found gleanable sources of materials for her research project which were not available at the university.
gleaned (adjective), more gleaned, most gleaned
1. A reference to collected or compiled contents done by research: Max utilized the gleaned data that he found from the various books that he discovered on the topic he was investigating for the book he was compiling.
2. Descriptive of something that has been carefully organized: For days, Susan and the students have been arranging the gleaned information that they were planning to use for their class assignments.
gleaner (s) (noun), gleaners (pl)
1. Someone who accumulates something in small pieces slowly and carefully; such as, information: Carol was a gleaner who searched through all of the dictionaries and books that she could find for something about the words she was assigned to complete for the dictionary she was working on.
2. Anyone who picks up grain left in the field by a harvester: After cutting the plants in the field with the big farm machine, the farmer's children, Jack and Jill, became gleaners who spent a few hours each day collecting leftover ears of corn in order to avoid wasting any of the maize.
gleanings (pl) (noun) (not singular)
1. Objects or ideas that have been procured or amassed over a period of time; especially, when they form a collection or a comprehensive whole: Jim and Jane had many valuable gleanings for their project after spending long hours of research at the university.

From the gleanings of endless research, biochemists have made many discoveries that are of significant benefit to the human race.

2. The usable parts of a crop that are left behind in a harvested field or area and which can be gathered in by hand: Jim, the farmer, hired workers to collect the gleanings of wheat that were left after using his reaping machine.
ungleaned (adjective) (not comparable)
Relating to something that has been collected but not organized: There are remnants of archival materials in the library which are still ungleaned.