leak definition | Dictionary.com

leak

[leek]

–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, esp. 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 fol. by out): The news leaked out.

9.	to disclose secret, esp. 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.

—Idiom

12.	take a leak, Slang: Vulgar. to urinate.

Origin:
1375–1425; 1955–60 for def. 11; late ME leken < ON leka to drip, leak; akin to D lek, obs. G lech leaky. See leach ¹

Related forms:

leaker, noun

leakless, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To leak

leak (lēk)

v. leaked, leak·ing, leaks

v. intr.

To permit the escape, entry, or passage of something through a breach or flaw: rusted pipes that were beginning to leak; a boat leaking at the seams.
To escape or pass through a breach or flaw: helium leaking slowly from the balloon.
Informal To become publicly known through a breach of secrecy: The news has leaked.

v. tr.

To permit (a substance) to escape or pass through a breach or flaw: a damaged reactor leaking radioactivity into the atmosphere.
Informal To disclose without authorization or official sanction: leaked classified information to a reporter.

A crack or flaw that permits something to escape from or enter a container or conduit: fixed the leak in the roof.
1. The act or instance of leaking.
2. An amount leaked: equipment used in cleaning up oil leaks.
3. Loss of electric current as a result of faulty insulation.
4. The path or place at which this loss takes place.
Informal An unauthorized or a deliberate disclosure of confidential information: "Sometimes we can't respond to stories based on leaks" (Ronald Reagan).
1. Loss of electric current as a result of faulty insulation.
2. The path or place at which this loss takes place.

[Middle English leken, probably from Middle Dutch lēken.]
leak'er n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Leak

Leak\, n. [Akin to D. lek leaky, a leak, G. leck, Icel. lekr leaky, Dan. l[ae]k leaky, a leak, Sw. l["a]ck; cf. AS. hlec full of cracks or leaky. Cf. Leak, v.]

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." --Bunyan.

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

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.

Leak

Leak\, a. Leaky. [Obs.] --Spenser.

Leak

Leak\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Leaked; p. pr. & vb. n. Leaking.] [Akin to D. lekken, G. lecken, lechen, Icel. leka, Dan. l[ae]kke, Sw. l["a]cka, AS. leccan to wet, moisten. See Leak, n.]

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.

Leak

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

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : leak

Spanish: fuga, escape,

German: das Leck,

Japanese: 漏れ口

More Translations »

leak

n. With 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. memory leak and fd leak have their own entries; one might also refer, to, say, a `window handle leak' in a window system.

Jargon File 4.2.0
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leak (v.)

"to let water in or out" [Johnson], 1420, from M.Du. leken "to drip, to leak," or from O.N. leka, cognate of O.E. leccan "to moisten" (which did not survive into M.E.), all from P.Gmc. *lek- "deficiency" (cf. O.H.G. lecchen "to become dry," Ger. lechzen "to be parched with thirst"). The noun is from 1487. The figurative meaning "come to be known in spite of efforts at concealment" dates from at least 1832; transitive sense first recorded 1859; the noun in this sense dates from 1950. Noun sense of "act of urination" is from 1934 (first attested in "Tropic of Cancer"); but the verb meaning "to piss" is from 1596.

"Why, you will allow vs ne're a Iourden, and then we leake in your Chimney." ["I Hen. IV," II.i.22]

leak 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.
[The Jargon File]
(1995-04-18)

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