Library / English Dictionary

LEAK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Unauthorized (especially deliberate) disclosure of confidential information

Synonyms:

leak; news leak

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("leak" is a kind of...):

disclosure; revealing; revelation (the speech act of making something evident)

Derivation:

leak (be leaked)

leak (tell anonymously)

leaky (prone to communicate confidential information)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The discharge of a fluid from some container

Example:

he had to clean up the leak

Synonyms:

escape; leak; leakage; outflow

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("leak" is a kind of...):

discharge; outpouring; run (the pouring forth of a fluid)

Derivation:

leak (have an opening that allows light or substances to enter or go out)

leak (enter or escape as through a hole or crack or fissure)

leaky (permitting the unwanted passage of fluids or gases)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An accidental hole that allows something (fluid or light etc.) to enter or escape

Example:

one of the tires developed a leak

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("leak" is a kind of...):

hole (an opening into or through something)

Derivation:

leak (have an opening that allows light or substances to enter or go out)

leak (enter or escape as through a hole or crack or fissure)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A euphemism for urination

Example:

he had to take a leak

Synonyms:

leak; making water; passing water; wetting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Hypernyms ("leak" is a kind of...):

micturition; urination (the discharge of urine)

Domain usage:

euphemism (an inoffensive or indirect expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive or too harsh)

Derivation:

leaky (used informally; unable to retain urine)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Soft watery rot in fruits and vegetables caused by fungi

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("leak" is a kind of...):

soft rot (mushy or slimy decay of plants caused by bacteria or fungi)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Have an opening that allows light or substances to enter or go out

Example:

the roof leaks badly

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

"Leak" entails doing...:

break; bust; fall apart; wear; wear out (go to pieces)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "leak"):

bilge; take in water (take in water at the bilge)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

leakage (the discharge of a fluid from some container)

leak (an accidental hole that allows something (fluid or light etc.) to enter or escape)

leak (the discharge of a fluid from some container)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Enter or escape as through a hole or crack or fissure

Example:

Gas leaked into the basement

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "leak" is one way to...):

come forth; come out; egress; emerge; go forth; issue (come out of)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Derivation:

leak (the discharge of a fluid from some container)

leak (an accidental hole that allows something (fluid or light etc.) to enter or escape)

leakage (the discharge of a fluid from some container)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Be leaked

Example:

The news leaked out despite his secrecy

Synonyms:

leak; leak out

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "leak" is one way to...):

break; get around; get out (be released or become known; of news)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

leak (unauthorized (especially deliberate) disclosure of confidential information)

leaker (a surreptitious informant)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Tell anonymously

Example:

The news were leaked to the paper

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "leak" is one way to...):

break; bring out; disclose; discover; divulge; expose; give away; let on; let out; reveal; uncover; unwrap (make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret)

Cause:

break; get around; get out (be released or become known; of news)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Derivation:

leak (unauthorized (especially deliberate) disclosure of confidential information)

leaker (a surreptitious informant)

Credits

 Context examples: 

These new blood vessels often leak blood and fluid.

(Macular Degeneration, NIH: National Eye Institute)

Channels may be permanently open, like the potassium leak channel or they may be voltage gated, like the sodium channel or ligand gated like the acetylcholine receptor.

(Ion Channel, NCI Thesaurus)

It comes from substances that leak out of blood capillaries (the smallest type of blood vessel).

(Interstitial fluid, NCI Dictionary)

The body releases chemicals that cause blood vessels to leak and tissues to swell in order to isolate a foreign substance from further contact with the body’s tissues.

(Researchers discover otulipenia, a new inflammatory disease, NIH)

The transport ship Gloria Scott was set down by the Admiralty as being lost at sea, and no word has ever leaked out as to her true fate.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Both secreted and leaked proteins can inform health status and disease risk.

(Study highlights potential for ‘liquid health check’ to predict disease risk, University of Cambridge)

We needed the sail for the boat, and the tarpaulin had begun to leak.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are clusters of dilated, thin-walled blood vessels that can lead to seizures or stroke when blood leaks into the surrounding brain tissue.

(Researchers connect brain blood vessel lesions to intestinal bacteria, NIH)

Blistering and tissue damage caused by certain drugs when they leak out of a vein into the tissue around it.

(Extravasation injury, NCI Dictionary)

He started to take off his shoes, but fell to staring at the white plaster wall opposite him, broken by long streaks of dirty brown where rain had leaked through the roof.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)