Brewer's: Lenten

Frugal, stinted, as food in Lent. Shakespeare has “lenten entertainment” (Hamlet, ii. 2); “a lenten answer” (Twelfth Night, i. 5); “a lenten pye” (Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4).

“And with a lenten salad cooled her blood.”

Dryden: Hind and Panther, iii. 27.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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