Leak definition

lēk
leaked leaking leaks
See word origin
Frequency:
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.

verb
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To allow (secret or confidential information) to become known.
verb
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To become publicly known through a breach of secrecy.

The news has leaked.

verb
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Leak is defined as to let out or get out by mistake or on purpose.

An example of to leak is juice coming out of a crack in a plastic jug.

An example of to leak is private information being released to the media.

verb
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To escape or pass through a breach or flaw.

Helium leaking slowly from the balloon.

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To permit (a substance) to escape or pass through a breach or flaw.

A damaged reactor leaking radioactivity into the atmosphere.

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To disclose without authorization or official sanction.

Leaked classified information to a reporter.

verb
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A crack or flaw that permits something to escape from or enter a container or conduit.

Fixed the leak in the roof.

noun
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An unauthorized or a deliberate disclosure of confidential information.
noun
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The act or instance of leaking.
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An amount leaked.

Equipment used in cleaning up oil leaks.

noun
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Loss of electric current as a result of faulty insulation.
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The path or place at which this loss takes place.
noun
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To let a fluid substance out or in accidentally.

The kettle leaks; the boat leaks.

verb
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To enter, or escape accidentally from, an object or container.
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To become known little by little, by accident, carelessness, or treachery.

The truth leaked out.

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To permit (water, air, light, radiation, etc.) to pass accidentally in or out; allow to leak.
verb
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An accidental hole or crack that lets something out or in.
noun
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Any means of escape for something that ought not to be let out, lost, etc.
noun
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The fact of leaking; leakage.
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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.
noun
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(slang) The act of urinating.
noun
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A loss of electrical current through faulty insulation.
noun
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The point or path where this occurs.
noun
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A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.

A leak in a roof.

A leak in a boat.

A leak in a gas pipe.

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The entrance or escape of a fluid through a crack, fissure, or other aperture.

The leak gained on the ship's pumps.

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A divulgation, or disclosure, of information held secret until then.

The leaks by Chelsea Manning showed the secrets of the US military.

noun
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The person through whom such divulgation, or disclosure, occurred.

The press must have learned about the plan through a leak.

noun
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(computing) The gradual loss of a system resource caused by failure to deallocate previously reserved portions.

Resource leak.

Memory leak.

noun
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(vulgar, slang, especially with the verb "take") An act of urination.

I have to take a leak.

noun
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To allow fluid to escape or enter something that should be sealed.

The faucet has been leaking since last month.

verb
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To reveal secret information.

Someone must have leaked it to our competitors that the new product will be out soon.

verb
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(obsolete) Leaky.
adjective
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(vulgar slang) take a leak
  • To urinate.
idiom
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Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
leak
Plural:
leaks

Idioms and Phrasal Verbs

Origin of leak

  • Middle English leken probably from Middle Dutch lēken

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • 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

Leak Sentence Examples

  • Is there a leak in you operation?

  • What to do in the event of a gas leak.

  • The major question is why the pilots did not detect the fuel leak earlier than they did.

  • Two factory workers have died after apparantly being overcome by fumes in a suspected chemical leak in an engineering factory.

  • All the sluices should be substantially built at first with stones and mortar, to prevent the leakage of water; for, should water from a leak be permitted to find its way into the meadow, that portion of it will stagnate and produce coarse grasses.

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Also Mentioned In

Words near leak in the Dictionary