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Leak   /lik/   Listen
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.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Leak" Quotes from Famous Books



... nigh onto three days that poor boat struggled on bravely agin the ragin' storm, but the ship wasn't built that could live in that sea, an' the end was bound to come sooner or later. Come, it did, at last. An officer stood on the stairs orderin' us all up onto the deck; the ship had sprung a leak, the water was pourin' in faster than they could pump it out, an' we must take to ...
— The Alchemist's Secret • Isabel Cecilia Williams

... cargo steamer. Two parched, yellow, glassy-eyed, whispering skeletons in her recognised the authority of a third, who declared that his name was Brown. His schooner, he reported, bound south with a cargo of Java sugar, had sprung a bad leak and sank under his feet. He and his companions were the survivors of a crew of six. The two died on board the steamer which rescued them. Brown lived to be seen by me, and I can testify that he had played his ...
— Lord Jim • Joseph Conrad

... we found ourselves nearly the length of the south end of Ulietea, and to windward of some harbours that lay on the west side of this island. Into one of these harbours, though we had before been ashore on the other side of the island, I intended to put, in order to stop a leak which we had sprung in the powder-room, and to take in more ballast, as I found the ship too light to carry sail upon a wind. As the wind was right against us, we plied off one of the harbours, and about three o'clock in the afternoon on the 1st of August, we came to an anchor in the entrance of ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 • Robert Kerr

... now a quarter to five. Pampeluna was some thirty miles away, and Heaven only knew what sort of country lay before us. We were nearly at the top of the pass, and, presumably, once we were over we should strike a lot of "down hill." But if the leak became worse, and there was much ...
— Jonah and Co. • Dornford Yates

... soon the Widow Cross contrived To fall in love with even that band! And all at once the brackish juices Came gushing out thro' sorrow's sluices— Tear after tear too fast to wipe, Tho' sopped, and sopped, and sopped again— No leak in sorrow's private pipe, But like a bursting on the main! Whoe'er has watched the window-pane— I mean to say in showery weather— Has seen two little drops of rain, Like lovers very fond and fain, At one another creeping, creeping, Till both, at last, ...
— The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood • Thomas Hood


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