My parents lived through the lean years of the 1930s.

我的父母经历了20世纪30年代的萧条期。

《柯林斯英汉双解大词典》

Ladies and gentlemen, the signs are evident in many areas. The lean years are upon us in terms of the global economic outlook.

女士们，先生们，许多领域已有明显迹象显示，全球经济前景不佳，我们需要过若干年苦日子。

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Yet the lean years helped to stop the city's historic buildings being replaced by the concrete utopias beloved of modernist planners.

但是，几年的经济萧条却有助于阻止城市的历史建筑不被现代主义规划者所喜爱的水泥乌托邦所取代。

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we're going to lean on each other.' And that's what we've done here the last four years and this is the culmination of all that belief and that faith."

VOA: standard.2010.02.08

Over the past three decades, Britain has tended to suffer more than most in the lean years.

ECONOMIST: The economy

Despite Adler's success, he said he still remembers the lean years at the start of his career.

CNN: Ceramist Adler adds furniture to his creations

The best time to buy into the IPO market was during the lean years of the last decade.

FORBES: IPO Bubble Bath