You searched for: “lien
lean, lean, lien
lean (LEEN) (adjective)
1. Pertaining to something which is lacking in essential ingredients or quality: The corn crop was lean this year because of the lack of rain.
2. Descriptive of a person or something that has little or no fat: Trisha will buy a lean roast of beef for dinner.
lean (LEEN) (verb)
1. To bend or deviate from a vertical position: Brenda was so tired that she had to lean against a tree and rest for a few minutes.
2. To be inclined towards an opinion or desire: Mike's tendency is to lean towards chocolate pie for dessert.
lien (LEEN, LEE uhn) (noun)
The right to take and hold or sell the property of a debtor as security or payment for a debt or duty: The bank had a lien on the house of the former businessman who was in debt.

In these lean financial times it is not unusual for a bank to hold a lien on a person's property.

lien (s) (noun), liens (pl)
1. The legal right to keep or to sell somebody else's property as security for a debt.
2. An alternative term for "spleen" or "splen"; a large dark-red oval organ on the left side of the body between the stomach and the diaphragm which produces cells involved in immune responses.
3. Etymology: "right to hold property of another until debt is paid", 1531, from Middle French lien, from Latin ligamen, "bond"; from ligare, "to bind, to tie".
This entry is located in the following unit: lig- (page 1)
(Greek > Latin: spleen; a combining form denoting relationship to the spleen)
Word Entries containing the term: “lien
lienculus, lien accessorius
1. Splenculus, little spleen.
2. Splen accessorius, "accessory spleen"; a connected or detached outlying portion, or exclave, of the spleen.
This entry is located in the following units: lieno-, lien- + (page 1) -ulus, -olus, -ulum, -ola (page 2)