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 *lekaną (“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 leċċan (“to water, wet”), Albanian lag, lak (“I damp, make wet”). See also leach, lake.

• enPR: lēk, IPA^(key): /liːk/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -iːk
• Homophone: leek

leak (plural leaks)

1. 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

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

   The leak gained on the ship's pumps.

   The babies' diapers had big leaks.

3. A divulgation, or disclosure, of information previously held secret.

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

4. The person through whom such divulgation, or disclosure, occurs.

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

5. A loss of electricity through imperfect insulation, or the point where it occurs.
6. (computing) The gradual loss of a system resource caused by failure to deallocate previously reserved portions.

   resource leak

   memory leak

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

   I have to take a leak.

leak (third-person singular simple present leaks, present participle leaking, simple past and past participle leaked)

1. (transitive, intransitive) 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.

   The faucet has been leaking since last month.

2. (intransitive) (of a fluid or gas) To pass through an opening that should be sealed.

   No one realized that propane gas was leaking from a rusty tank in the concession area, slowly filling the unventilated room.

3. (transitive, intransitive) To disclose secret information surreptitiously or anonymously.

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

leak (comparative more leak, superlative most leak)

1. (obsolete) Leaky.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.8:

     Yet is the bottle leake, and bag so torne, / That all which I put in fals out anon […].

• Alek, Kale, Lake, ka le, kale, lake

• IPA^(key): /liːk/

leak

1. Imperative singular of leaken.
2. (colloquial) First-person singular present of leaken.