LEAK • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Leak

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noun

Leak n.

1.

A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape; as, a leak in a roof; a leak in a boat; a leak in a gas pipe. "One leak will sink a ship."

2.

The entrance or escape of a fluid through a crack, fissure, or other aperture; as, the leak gained on the ship's pumps.

3.

(Elec.) A loss of electricity through imperfect insulation; also, the point at which such loss occurs.

4.

An act of urinating; used mostly in the phrase take a leak, i. e. to urinate. (vulgar)

5.

The disclosure of information that is expected to be kept confidential; as, leaks by the White House staff infuriated Nixon; leaks by the Special Prosecutor were criticized as illegal.

To spring a leak, to open or crack so as to let in water; to begin to let in water; as, the ship sprung a leak.

verb

Leak v. i. (past & past part. leaked; pres. part. leaking)

1.

To let water or other fluid in or out through a hole, crevice, etc.; as, the cask leaks; the roof leaks; the boat leaks.

2.

To enter or escape, as a fluid, through a hole, crevice, etc.; to pass gradually into, or out of, something; usually with in or out.

To leak out, to be divulged gradually or clandestinely; to become public; as, the facts leaked out.

adjective

Leak adj. Leaky. (Obs.)

See images of 'Leak'

Etymology of 'Leak'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Leak" Quotes from Famous Books

... said Seth, taking up the thread of the story. "I've been in a vessel as sprung a leak, and where the hands were pumping day and night, with nary a spell off, so as to kip a plank atween us and the bottom of Davy Jones's looker; but, never, in all my born days, have I seed sich pumpin' as went ...

— Picked up at Sea - The Gold Miners of Minturne Creek • J.C. Hutcheson

... tired. He looked into the fire, which was burning badly, and about the bare, little, dusty study, and realized suddenly that he was tired all the way through, body and soul. And swiftly, by way of the leak which that admission made in the sea-wall of his courage, rushed in an ocean of depression. It had been a hard, bad day. Two people had given up their pews in the little church which needed so urgently every ounce of support that held it. And the junior ...

— The Militants - Stories of Some Parsons, Soldiers, and Other Fighters in the World • Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews

... alone, as the navigator was on the bridge, and the engineer was busy with a slight leak in the cooking water service. I have said that, though a heavy drinker by nature, Alten is a strict abstainer at sea. Accordingly I produced a small flask of rum, half-way through dinner, and helped myself ...

— The Diary of a U-boat Commander • Anon

... now rapidly rising. In a short time it had increased very much, and as the waves came rolling up after us, they threatened every instant to engulf the boat. She had begun to leak also very considerably, and do all we could, we were unable to ...

— Will Weatherhelm - The Yarn of an Old Sailor • W.H.G. Kingston

... spoke he beheld a trickle of water glistening down the forward bends, and then a little rill, and then a spurt, as if a serious leak was sprung. He found the source of this, and contrived to caulk it with a strand of tarred rope for the present; but the sinking of his knife into the forward timber showed him that a great part of the bows was rotten. If a head-sea arose, the crazy old frame ...

— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore

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