Leak

Pronunciation

• enPR: lÄ“k, IPA: /liːk/
• Rhymes: -iːk
• Homophones: leek

Origin

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.

Noun

1. A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.a leak in a roofa leak in a boata 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.
3. A divulgation, or disclosure, of information held secret until then.The leaks by Chelsea Manning showed the secrets of the US military.
4. The person through whom such divulgation, or disclosure, occurred.The press must have learned about the plan through a leak.
5. (computing) The gradual loss of a system resource caused by failure to deallocate previously reserved portions.resource leakmemory leak
6. (vulgar, slang, especially with the verb "take") An act of urination.I have to take a leak.

Full definition of leak

Verb

1. To allow fluid to escape or enter something that should be sealed.The faucet has been leaking since last month.
2. To reveal secret information.''Someone must have leaked it to our competitors that the new product will be out soon.

Adjective

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 ….

Anagrams

• kale
• lake