Definition of "leak"

leak

/liːk/

noun
plural leaks
1. A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.
2. The entrance or escape of a fluid through a crack, fissure, or other aperture.
3. A divulgation, or disclosure, of information previously held secret.
4. The person through whom such divulgation, or disclosure, occurs.
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.
7. (mildly vulgar, slang, especially with the verb "take") An act of urination.
verb
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.
2. (intransitive) (of a fluid or gas) To pass through an opening that should be sealed.
3. (transitive, intransitive) To disclose secret information surreptitiously or anonymously.
  Quotations
  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.
  1987, “Man Overboard”, in Yes, Prime Minister, spoken by Bernard Wooley (Derek Fowlds)
4. (intransitive, figurative, by extension) To pass through when it would normally or preferably be blocked.
  Quotations
  A target that is not detected would not be intercepted and thus would leak through the single defensive layer.
  1989, Kenneth N. Luongo, W. Thomas Wander, The Search for Security in Space, page 149
5. (transitive, figurative, by extension) To allow anything through that would normally or preferably be blocked.
  Quotations
  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.
  2021 February 6, Graham Bean, “Scotland beat England at Twickenham for the first time in 38 years”, in The Scotsman‎
6. (slang, sometimes euphemistic) To urinate.
  Quotations
  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.
  c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]
  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.
  1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Viking Press
  Go and find a tree. I just leak against a oak over there.
  1965, Sam Selvon, The Housing Lark, Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, published 1990, page 125
7. (slang, US) To bleed.
adjective
comparative more leak, superlative most leak
1. (obsolete) Leaky.
  Quotations
  Yet is the bottle leake, and bag so torne, / That all which I put in fals out anon […].
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie

Definition of "leak"

leak

noun

verb

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adjective

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