leak

About 3.38 uses per million words.

Meaning

1. noun A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.

   a leak in a roof

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

   The leak gained on the ship's pumps.

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

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

4. noun The person through whom such divulgation, or disclosure, occurs.
5. noun A loss of electricity through imperfect insulation, or the point where it occurs.
6. noun The gradual loss of a system resource caused by failure to deallocate previously reserved portions.

   resource leak

7. noun An act of urination.

   I have to take a leak.

8. verb 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.

Similar words

leakage leak out wetting outflow escape making water passing water seepage leaky fissure

Often followed by

in out and is of from into detection or

Word family

leaked leaker leakers leaking leakproof leaks