Lent

Only two basic senses of lent are current. It may be

• the past tense and past participle of the irregular verb 'to lend'

Note that it is not to be used as the past forms of 'to lean'.
               See leaned - leant

• Lent is also the noun (always written with an initial capital) which means 'period of the Christian year lasting for 40 days and ending on Good Friday'. This is a period of fasting, when some (but not all) Christian sects expect their members to abstain from some pleasures. Most traditionally, they do not eat meat; often they abstain from smoking or drinking or other such pleasures. Lent (which originally meant 'Spring', and may be derived from 'the lengthening of the days') begins, in Western Christianity, on Ash Wednesday, when church-goers were marked with ash as a symbol of penitence and prayer. This is the purpose of Lent: to put worshippers in an appropriate frame of mind to prepare for Easter, the most sacred time of the Christian year, commemorating the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.