Leak Definition
lēk
leaked, leaking, leaks
verb
leaked, leaking, leaks
To permit the escape, entry, or passage of something through a breach or flaw.
Rusted pipes that were beginning to leak; a boat leaking at the seams.
American Heritage
To let a fluid substance out or in accidentally.
The kettle leaks; the boat leaks.
Webster's New World
To escape or pass through a breach or flaw.
Helium leaking slowly from the balloon.
American Heritage
To enter, or escape accidentally from, an object or container.
Webster's New World
To permit (water, air, light, radiation, etc.) to pass accidentally in or out; allow to leak.
Webster's New World
noun
leaks
An accidental hole or crack that lets something out or in.
Webster's New World
Any means of escape for something that ought not to be let out, lost, etc.
Webster's New World
The fact of leaking; leakage.
Webster's New World
An amount leaked.
Equipment used in cleaning up oil leaks.
American Heritage
A disclosure of secret or confidential information; specif., an ostensibly accidental disclosure by a government official to the news media, actually intended to produce an effect.
Webster's New World
adjective
(obsolete) Leaky.
Wiktionary
idiom
take a leak
- To urinate.
American Heritage
Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Leak
Origin of Leak
-
From Middle English leken (“to let water in or out"), from Middle Dutch leken (“to leak, drip") or Old Norse leka (“to leak, drip"); both from Proto-Germanic *lekanÄ… (“to leak, drain"), from Proto-Indo-European *leg-, *leǵ- (“to leak"). Cognate with Dutch lekken (“to leak"), German lechen, lecken (“to leak"), Swedish läcka (“to leak"), Icelandic leka (“to leak"). Related also to Old English leÄ‹Ä‹an (“to water, wet"), Albanian lag, lak (“I damp, make wet"). See also leach, lake.
From Wiktionary
Middle English leken probably from Middle Dutch lēken
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Find Similar Words
Find similar words to leak using the buttons below.