See also: brush shed half-camp half-tent shed tent
- 1872  (1877)  Tents, for the sake of carrying as little weight as possible, were discarded for the simple "lean to."
- 1910  With Walter Barrie, his guide, he was ranging timber up north. They built a lean-to of boughs (with nothing to lean-to). . . .
- 1966  Lean-tos were overnight shelters just large enough for one or two men to sleep in, made by laying poles against some support as a fallen tree and covering them with bark or boughs to check the wind.
1b n. a portable canvas shelter having a sloping roof from ridgepole to ground and being open on three sides.
- 1913  Jack opened the cache for an additional supply of grub, and what else he needed: his cherished leather chaps, his canvas lean-to, and mosquito bar.
- 1963  . . . it was a real pleasure to see him tending his camp, his bedroll laid on pine boughs beneath a canvas lean-to.
2 n. a temporary shelter, often at a stopping place in the bush.