Quranic root
عجف
ʿ · j · f
The root has two established semantic axes: physical leanness or emaciation, and restraining or withholding oneself from something desired.
The physical axis extends from loss of fat and bodily leanness to thinness in objects, barren land, and related descriptions. The second axis develops into abstaining from food, preferring another's need, exercising forbearance, and turning away from someone or something.
- Maqāyīs · row 3146
- Mufradāt · row 949
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَعْجَفُ
ʾaʿjafu
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 2 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Lean, meagre, or emaciated through loss of flesh or fat.
The Quranic form is the plural عِجَافٌ. In the supplied occurrences it describes the lean cattle in the account of Joseph's dream; the plural is used for masculine and feminine referents.
- Lane · entry 2263
- Lane · entry 2259
- Mufradāt · row 949
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:43word 10
“lean ones”
Quran 12:46word 11
“lean ones”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 19 Classical meanings
عَجِفَ
To become lean, meagre, emaciated, or weak; to lose fatness or plumpness.
Applied especially to an animal, horse, or cattle, and also more generally.
- Lane · entry 2252
عَجَفَ نَفْسَهُ
To withhold or restrain oneself from desired food, especially so that another may have it or become satisfied.
The construction is عَجَفَ نَفْسَهُ عَنِ الطَّعَامِ or عَلَى فُلَانٍ; it denotes deliberate self-denial despite desire.
- Lane · entry 2252
- Mufradāt · row 949
عَجَفَ نَفْسَهُ عَلَى
To constrain oneself to forbear, endure another's conduct, or exercise patience toward someone, including in tending a sick person.
A conventional reflexive construction with عَلَى expresses patient restraint rather than physical leanness.
- Lane · entry 2252
عَجَفَ عَنْ
To withdraw oneself from or turn away from a person or thing.
The construction عَجَفَ عَنْ فُلَانٍ has the sense of becoming aloof or turning away.
- Lane · entry 2252
- Mufradāt · row 949
عَجَّفَ
To eat less than enough, or to transfer one's food to another before satisfying one's own hunger.
The usage concerns dietary self-denial, including withholding food during drought or dearth.
- Lane · entry 2253
عَجَّفَ
To feed on poor or bad food and thereby become lean or emaciated.
This is a dietary-result usage of the Form II verb.
- Lane · entry 2253
أَعْجَفَ
To render a horse, beast, or other animal lean, emaciated, or weak.
The Form IV verb is causative and takes the animal made lean as its object.
- Lane · entry 2254
أَعْجَفَ
Of a people, to have their cattle in a lean condition or to confine them because of harsh and straitened circumstances.
This usage describes the condition or treatment of livestock under hardship, not simply the direct causation of leanness.
- Lane · entry 2254
تَعَجُّفٌ
Being in a difficult, hard, or straitened condition.
A Form V verbal noun describing hardship or severity of circumstances.
- Lane · entry 2255
عَجَفٌ
Leanness, meagreness, or emaciation; also the rough, thickened, lean condition of bones associated with it.
The noun denotes the physical condition or its visible effect on the bones.
- Lane · entry 2256
أَعْجَفُ
Having scant flesh or being thin in a face, gums, or lips.
This is an extended adjectival application to particular body parts, including a face with little flesh and thin lips or gums.
- Lane · entry 2263
عُجَافٌ
A kind or variety of dates.
A nominal usage distinct from the adjective عِجَافٌ.
- Lane · entry 2258
عِجَافٌ
The colocynth, or its seeds.
A noun usage distinct from the plural adjective in the Quranic form.
- Lane · entry 2259
عِجَافٌ
Grain or grains that do not increase.
Used in the expression حَبٌّ عِجَافٌ.
- Lane · entry 2259
العِجَافُ
A name for time or fortune.
A specialized nominal usage reported as a name of time or one's fortune.
- Lane · entry 2259
أَعْجَفُ
Thin or slender, applied to an arrowhead.
The plural expression نِصَالٌ عِجَافٌ refers to arrowheads that are thin or slender.
- Lane · entry 2263
أَرْضٌ عَجْفَاءُ
Land lacking fertility or vegetation, especially land not rained upon or affected by drought.
The adjective is applied to land described as barren or deprived of productive growth.
- Lane · entry 2263
عَنْجَفٌ
Dry or tough from leanness, emaciation, or disease; also short, compact, or contracted in build.
The adjective may be applied to a body or person, including as an epithet for an old woman.
- Lane · entry 2261
مَعْجُوفٌ
A rusty, unpolished sword, or one sullied by remaining long without polishing.
A specialized adjectival usage concerning a sword's neglected and tarnished condition.
- Lane · entry 2264
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The public headword أَعْجَفُ is the normalized singular citation form; the Quranic occurrences themselves use the plural عِجَافٌ.
The food-restraint and turning-away constructions concern the verb عَجَفَ نَفْسَهُ and should not be conflated with the Quranic adjective meaning lean.