Word.ws English Dictionary

lean-to

/ˈliːnˌtuː/

lean-to noun: a shelter with a sloped roof; also a building with a similar construction attached to the side of a building as an extension.

Noun

lean-to (plural lean-tos)

  1. A shelter with a sloped roof; also a building with a similar construction attached to the side of a building as an extension.
    • Now we was in the lean-to, and heard trampings close by outside. So we crept to the door, and Tom stopped us there and put his eye to the crack, but couldn't make out nothing, it was so dark1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC
    • His shirt, an ordinary Crimean flannel, was exquisitely clean, and outside the "lean-to" another was drying on a bush.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 161

lean-to meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Vietnamese

lean-to in Tamil

இறவானம்

lean-to in Malayalam

ചായ്പ്, ചാർത്തിക്കെട്ട്, താഴ്ത്തുകെട്ടി

lean-to in Vietnamese

type of shelter
chái

Examples of lean-to in a sentence

  • Philander went into the next room, which was just a lean-to hitched on to the end of the shanty, and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
  • From a lean-to of bark an old lubra hurriedly emerged.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 248:

Forms of lean-to

plurallean-tos
alternative formleanto

Origin of lean-to

First attested 1461.

Words formed from lean-to

Questions about lean-to

What does lean-to mean?
Lean-to means a shelter with a sloped roof; also a building with a similar construction attached to the side of a building as an extension.
What is lean-to in Tamil?
Lean-to in Tamil is இறவானம். See Lean-to meaning in Tamil.
How do you use lean-to in a sentence?
Philander went into the next room, which was just a lean-to hitched on to the end of the shanty, and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm.
What part of speech is lean-to?
Lean-to is a noun.
How do you pronounce lean-to?
Lean-to is pronounced /ˈliːnˌtuː/.
What is the plural of lean-to?
The plural of lean-to is lean-tos.

Words near lean-to in the dictionary

  1. lean'd
  2. lean, finely textured beef
  3. lean-back
  4. lean-backs
  5. lean-burn
  6. lean-to
  7. lean-tos
  8. lean-witted
  9. Leana
  10. leanback
  11. leanbacks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lean-to (page history and authors); lean-to (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lean-to (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-lean-to.wav.

Cite this entry: “lean-to.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lean-to. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.