leak

[leek] /lik/
noun
1.
an unintended hole, crack, or the like, through which liquid, gas, light, etc., enters or escapes:
a leak in the roof.
2.
an act or instance of leaking.
3.
any means of unintended entrance or escape.
4.
Electricity. the loss of current from a conductor, usually resulting from poor insulation.
5.
a disclosure of secret, especially official, information, as to the news media, by an unnamed source.
verb (used without object)
6.
to let a liquid, gas, light, etc., enter or escape, as through an unintended hole or crack:
The boat leaks.
7.
to pass in or out in this manner, as liquid, gas, or light:
gas leaking from a pipe.
8.
to become known unintentionally (usually followed by out):
The news leaked out.
9.
to disclose secret, especially official, information anonymously, as to the news media:
The official revealed that he had leaked to the press in the hope of saving his own reputation.
verb (used with object)
10.
to let (liquid, gas, light, etc.) enter or escape:
This camera leaks light.
11.
to allow to become known, as information given out covertly:
to leak the news of the ambassador's visit.
Idioms
12.
take a leak, Slang: Vulgar. to urinate.
Origin
1375-1425; 1955-60 for def 11; late Middle English leken < Old Norse leka to drip, leak; akin to Dutch lek, obsolete German lech leaky. See leach1
Related forms
leaker, noun
leakless, adjective
nonleaking, adjective
Can be confused
leak, leek.
Examples from the web for leak
  • Although he was cautious-using encrypted e-mail to communicate with a reporter-his leak was discovered.
  • Red oak is known to be a more porous wood and therefore more likely to leak.
  • He unscrews the cap and lets a few drops leak onto the stone, where they fizz and bubble.
  • Holes exist in the bottom where the ice pick went through and caused them to leak.
  • Wherever there was a break to be repaired, a leak to be stopped, there he was.
  • The roof and eaves gutters leak, rendering the apartments wet.
  • They acknowledged, however, that any leak outside the lab raises serious concerns.
  • For all those reasons, and in spite of the best efforts of consultants and search chairs, committees sometimes leak.
  • The oil leak was a case study par excellence for our course.
  • But basins can leak, becoming maintenance headaches.
British Dictionary definitions for leak

leak

/liːk/
noun
1.
  1. a crack, hole, etc, that allows the accidental escape or entrance of fluid, light, etc
  2. such escaping or entering fluid, light, etc
2.
spring a leak, to develop a leak
3.
something resembling this in effect: a leak in the defence system
4.
the loss of current from an electrical conductor because of faulty insulation, etc
5.
a disclosure, often intentional, of secret information
6.
the act or an instance of leaking
7.
a slang word for urination See urination
verb
8.
to enter or escape or allow to enter or escape through a crack, hole, etc
9.
when intr, often foll by out. to disclose (secret information), often intentionally, or (of secret information) to be disclosed
10.
(intransitive) a slang word for urinate
Derived Forms
leaker, noun
Word Origin
C15: from Scandinavian; compare Old Norse leka to drip
Word Origin and History for leak
v.

"to let water in or out" [Johnson], late 14c., from Middle Dutch leken "to drip, to leak," or from Old Norse leka, both of them related to Old English leccan "to moisten" (which did not survive into Middle English), all from Proto-Germanic *lek- "deficiency" (cf. Old High German lecchen "to become dry," German lechzen "to be parched with thirst"), from PIE root *leg- "to dribble, trickle." The figurative meaning "come to be known in spite of efforts at concealment" dates from at least 1832; transitive sense first recorded 1859. Related: Leaked; leaking.

n.

late 15c., from leak (v.) or Old Norse cognate leki. Sense of "revelation of secret information" is from 1950. Meaning "act of urination" is attested from 1934 ("Tropic of Cancer"); but the verb meaning "to piss" is from 1590s: "Why, you will allow vs ne're a Iourden, and then we leake in your Chimney." ["I Hen. IV," II.i.22]

Slang definitions & phrases for leak

leak

noun
  1. The divulgence or divulger of secret information: A famous leak was called Deep Throat (1873+)
  2. An act of urination; a PISS (1930s+)
verb
  1. To give information to the press or other recipient secretly: Then the FCC report was ''leaked'' to the press (1859+)
  2. To urinate; piss: He said he had to leak; his back teeth were floating (1930s+)
Related Terms

take a leak


leak in Technology

programming
With a qualifier, one of a class of resource-management bugs that occur when resources are not freed properly after operations on them are finished, so they effectively disappear (leak out). This leads to eventual exhaustion as new allocation requests come in.
One might refer to, say, a "window handle leak" in a window system.
See memory leak, fd leak.
[Jargon File]
(1995-04-18)