DCHP-1 Online

lean-to

• 1a n. See 1966 quote.

  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.

  See also: camp (def. 1a)  

  • 1912  "How are we going to stow all our furniture in that shack, I wonder?" were Helen's first words when she saw the frame "lean-to" which was the only building on the place.
  • 1931  Log houses and bark "lean-tos," or camps, sheltered most of the civilians . . . but the soldiers spent the first winter under canvas.
  • 1964  [Caption] The lean-to beyond was the logging camp of the "Mosher" who logged the timber off the slopes behind.