leak
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: lēk
ipa: /liːk/
rhymes: -iːk
homophone: leek
Forms: form: leaks
form: leaking
form: leaked
form: leaked
Etymology: From Middle English leken (“to let water in or out”), from Old English *lecan (“to leak”), Middle Dutch leken (“to leak, drip”) or Old Norse leka (“to leak, drip”); all from Proto-Germanic *lekaną (“to leak, drain”), from Proto-Indo-European *leg-, *leǵ- (“to leak”).
Cognate with Dutch lekken (“to leak”), German lechen, lecken (“to leak”), Danish lække (“to leak”), Swedish läcka (“to leak”), Icelandic leka (“to leak”). Related also to Old English leċċan (“to water, wet”), Albanian lag, lak (“I damp, make wet”). See also leach, lake.
Senses: examples: text: The wells are believed to have been leaking oil for decades, long after the operating company ceased to exist.
glosses: To allow fluid or gas to pass through an opening that should be sealed.
examples: text: The faucet has been leaking since last month.
text: No one realized that propane gas was leaking from a rusty tank in the concession area, slowly filling the unventilated room.
glosses: (of a fluid or gas) To pass through an opening that should be sealed.
examples: text: Someone must have leaked it to our competitors that the new product will be out soon.
text: That's another of those irregular verbs, isn't it? I give confidential press briefings; you leak; he's being charged under section 2(A) of the Official Secrets Act.
ref: 1987, “Man Overboard”, in Yes, Prime Minister, spoken by Bernard Wooley (Derek Fowlds):
glosses: To disclose secret information surreptitiously or anonymously.
examples: text: A target that is not detected would not be intercepted and thus would leak through the single defensive layer.
ref: 1989, Kenneth N. Luongo, W. Thomas Wander, The Search for Security in Space, page 149:
glosses: To pass through when it would normally or preferably be blocked.
examples: text: England were leaking penalties as Scotland played with pace and variety. Russell was starting to find his range and when he threaded through a grubber to Sean Maitland the winger did well to gather and keep the ball in play. Unfortunately, his pass inside just eluded Russell.
ref: 2021 February 6, Graham Bean, “Scotland beat England at Twickenham for the first time in 38 years”, in The Scotsman:
glosses: To allow anything through that would normally or preferably be blocked.
examples: text: I had to leak in the woods since there were no toilets around.
text: Why, you will allow vs ne're a Iourden, and then we leake in your Chimney: and your Chamber-lye breeds Fleas like a Loach.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
text: Occasionally bums passed, Mexican mothers passed with children, and the prowl car came by and the cop got out to leak, but most of the time we were alone and mixing up our souls ever more and ever more till it would be terribly hard to say good-by.
ref: 1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC:
text: Go and find a tree. I just leak against a^([sic]) oak over there.
ref: 1965, Sam Selvon, The Housing Lark, Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, published 1990, page 125:
synonyms: word: break the seal
word: hit the head
word: micturate
word: pass water
word: pee
word: piddle
word: piss
word: slash
word: take a leak
word: take a piss
word: take a whiz
word: urinate
word: void
word: wee
word: wee wee
word: widdle
word: whiz
glosses: To urinate.
examples: text: He shanked him, now he's leaking.
glosses: To bleed.
Derived terms: aleak
leakable
leakee
leaker
leak like a sieve
leak out
nonleaking
overleak
unleaking