leak
/liːk/ noun, verb, adjective, proper noun
Forms leaks leaking leaked
- noun A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.
- noun The entrance or escape of a fluid through a crack, fissure, or other aperture. “The leak gained on the ship's pumps.”
- noun A divulgation, or disclosure, of information previously held secret. “The leaks by Chelsea Manning showed the secrets of the US military.”
- noun The person through whom such divulgation, or disclosure, occurs.
- noun A loss of electricity through imperfect insulation, or the point where it occurs.
- noun (computing) The gradual loss of a system resource caused by failure to deallocate previously reserved portions.
- noun (mildly vulgar, slang, especially with the verb "take") An act of urination. “I have to take a leak.”
- verb (transitive) To allow fluid or gas to pass through an opening that should be sealed. “The wells are believed to have been leaking oil for decades, long after the operating company ceased to exist.”
- verb (intransitive) (of a fluid or gas) To pass through an opening that should be sealed. “The faucet has been leaking since last month.”
- verb (ambitransitive) To disclose secret information surreptitiously or anonymously. “Someone must have leaked it to our competitors that the new product will be out soon.”
- verb (intransitive, figurative, by extension) To pass through when it would normally or preferably be blocked.
- verb (transitive, figurative, by extension) To allow anything through that would normally or preferably be blocked.
- verb (sometimes euphemistic) To urinate. “I had to leak in the woods since there were no toilets around.”
- verb (US) To bleed. “He shanked him, now he's leaking.”
- verb (vulgar) To ejaculate.
- adjective (obsolete) Leaky.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
break the seal hit the head micturate pass water pee piddle piss slash take a leak take a piss take a whiz tinkle urinate void wee wee wee widdle whiz wetting making water passing water escape leakage outflow news leak leak out
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)).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape; as, a leak in a roof; a leak in a boat; a leak in a gas pipe. "One leak will sink a ship." Bunyan.
- noun The entrance or escape of a fluid through a crack, fissure, or other aperture; as, the leak gained on the ship's pumps. To spring a leak, to open or crack so as to let in water; to begin to let in water; as, the ship sprung a leak.
- adjective Leaky. [Obs.] Spenser.
- verb To let water or other fluid in or out through a hole, crevice, etc.; as, the cask leaks; the roof leaks; the boat leaks.
Etymology [Akin to D. lek leaky, a leak, G.leck, Icel. lekr leaky, Dan. læk leaky, a leak, Sw. läck; cf. AS. hlec full of cracks or leaky. Cf. Leak, v.]
Etymology [Akin to D. lekken, G. lecken, lechen, Icel. leka, Dan. lække, Sw. läcka, AS. leccan to wet, moisten. See Leak, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “leak”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details