leak
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
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- (“to leak”).
Cognate with Dutch lekken (“to leak”), German lechen, lecken (“to leak”), Danish lække (“to leak”), Swedish läcka (“to leak”), Norwegian Bokmål lekke (“to leak”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian Nynorsk leka (“to leak”). Related also to Old English leċċan (“to water, wet”), Albanian lag, lak (“to damp, make wet”). See also leach, lake.
(divulgation, disclosure of information): Compare typologically Bulgarian изтичане (iztičane), Polish przeciek, Russian уте́чка (utéčka) (akin to течь impf or f (tečʹ)).
Inflected forms:
form: leaks
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: leaks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: leaking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: leaked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: leaked
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.
pos: noun
examples: a leak in a roof
a leak in a boat
a leak in a gas pipe
gloss: The entrance or escape of a fluid through a crack, fissure, or other aperture.
pos: noun
examples: The leak gained on the ship's pumps.
The babies' diapers had big leaks.
gloss: A divulgation, or disclosure, of information previously held secret.
pos: noun
examples: The leaks by Chelsea Manning showed the secrets of the US military.
gloss: The person through whom such divulgation, or disclosure, occurs.
pos: noun
examples: […] so even if he was the leak, we would never know.
I was the leak. That the government didn't like our advice, and so I decided to leak it to 'bounce' them into having to follow it.
If he was the leak, it wasn't intentional. The same went for her mom, not that Cat thought her mom had any friends with top-level security clearance.
gloss: A loss of electricity through imperfect insulation, or the point where it occurs.
pos: noun
gloss: The gradual loss of a system resource caused by failure to deallocate previously reserved portions.
pos: noun
examples: resource leak
memory leak
gloss: An act of urination.
pos: noun
tags: especially
mildly
slang
vulgar
examples: I have to take a leak.
gloss: To allow fluid or gas to pass through an opening that should be sealed.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The wells are believed to have been leaking oil for decades, long after the operating company ceased to exist.
gloss: (of a fluid or gas) To pass through an opening that should be sealed.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The faucet has been leaking since last month.
No one realized that propane gas was leaking from a rusty tank in the concession area, slowly filling the unventilated room.
gloss: To disclose secret information surreptitiously or anonymously.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: Someone must have leaked it to our competitors that the new product will be out soon.
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.
gloss: To pass through when it would normally or preferably be blocked.
pos: verb
tags: broadly
figuratively
intransitive
examples: A target that is not detected would not be intercepted and thus would leak through the single defensive layer.
gloss: To allow anything through that would normally or preferably be blocked.
pos: verb
tags: broadly
figuratively
transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To urinate.
pos: verb
tags: euphemistic
slang
sometimes
examples: I had to leak in the woods since there were no toilets around.
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.
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.
Go and find a tree. I just leak against a^([sic]) oak over there.
gloss: To bleed.
pos: verb
tags: US
slang
examples: He shanked him, now he's leaking.
Related words: leach
Derived words: antileak
data leak
endoleak
gas leak
inleak
lambda leak
leakage
Leakgate
leakless
leak-proof
leakproof
leaktivism
leaky
megaleak
memory leak
microleak
non-verbal leak
routing leak
spring a leak
superleak
take a leak
Vatileaks
aleak
leakable
leakee
leaker
leak like a sieve
leak out
nonleaking
overleak
unleaking
Translations:
lang: Arabic
word: تَسَرَّبَ
roman: tasarraba
lang: Azerbaijani
word: axmaq
lang: Azerbaijani
word: (su) keçirmək
lang: Bashkir
word: һыу үткәреү
roman: hıw ütkərew
lang: Bashkir
word: ағыу
roman: ağıw
lang: Bashkir
word: тамсылыу
roman: tamsılıw
lang: Bulgarian
word: пропускам
roman: propuskam
lang: Cherokee
word: ᎬᎫᏍᎦ
roman: gvgusga
lang: Chinese Cantonese
word: 漏
roman: lau⁶
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 洩漏 /泄漏
roman: xièlòu
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 漏
roman: lòu
lang: Cornish
word: devera
lang: Danish
word: lække
lang: Dutch
word: lekken
lang: Esperanto
word: liki
lang: Finnish
word: vuotaa
lang: French
word: fuir
lang: German
word: lecken
lang: German
word: tropfen
lang: Greek
word: διαρρέω
roman: diarréo
lang: Hawaiian
word: kulu
lang: Hindi
word: रिसना
roman: risnā
lang: Hungarian
word: szivárog
lang: Hungarian
word: ereszt
lang: Hungarian
word: átereszt
lang: Hungarian
word: csepeg
lang: Ido
word: likar
lang: Indonesian
word: bocor
lang: Ingrian
word: nestää
lang: Ingrian
word: mehtää
lang: Italian
word: perdere
lang: Italian
word: percolare
lang: Japanese
word: 漏れる
roman: moreru
lang: Korean
word: 새다
roman: saeda
lang: Latin
word: pereo
lang: Malay
word: bocor
lang: Malayalam
word: ചോരുക
roman: cōruka
lang: Māori
word: turu
lang: Māori
word: turuturu
lang: Māori
word: papī
lang: Māori
word: mapi
lang: Mongolian
word: гоожих
roman: goožix
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: lekke
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: ta inn vann
lang: Polish
word: (np. o dachu) przeciekać
lang: Polish
word: przeciec
lang: Portuguese
word: vazar
lang: Russian
word: течь
roman: tečʹ
lang: Russian
word: протека́ть
roman: protekátʹ
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: curiti
lang: Spanish
word: gotear
lang: Spanish
word: perder
lang: Spanish
word: chorrear
lang: Spanish
word: filtrar
lang: Spanish
word: liquear
lang: Spanish
word: escapar
lang: Spanish
word: fugar
lang: Spanish
word: tener una fuga
lang: Spanish
word: tener fugas
lang: Spanish
word: salírsele
lang: Swedish
word: läcka
lang: Thai
word: รั่ว
roman: rûua
lang: Turkish
word: sızdırmak
lang: Unami
word: wëntpe
lang: Unami
word: psëntpe
lang: Vietnamese
word: làm rò rỉ
lang: Welsh
word: gollwng
lang: Bulgarian
word: изтичам
roman: iztičam
lang: Hindi
word: रिसाव
roman: risāv
lang: Hungarian
word: szökik
lang: Hungarian
word: folyik
lang: Italian
word: trapelare
lang: Māori
word: pahī
lang: Māori
word: komama
lang: Polish
word: ulatniać
lang: Polish
word: ulotnić
lang: Spanish
word: percolar
lang: Spanish
word: filtrarse
lang: Spanish
word: fugarse
lang: Spanish
word: salirse
lang: Spanish
word: tener goteras
lang: Tamil
word: ஒழுகு
roman: oḻuku
lang: Turkish
word: sızmak