leak

noun

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

   “a leak in a roof”

   “a leak in a boat”

   “a leak in a gas pipe”

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

   “The leak gained on the ship's pumps.”

   “The babies' diapers had big leaks.”

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

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

4. The person through whom such divulgation, or disclosure, occurs.

   “[…] so even if he was the leak, we would never know.”

   “I was the leak. That the government didn't like our advice, and so I decided to leak it to 'bounce' them into having to follow it.”

   “If he was the leak, it wasn't intentional. The same went for her mom, not that Cat thought her mom had any friends with top-level security clearance.”

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

   “resource leak”

   “memory leak”

7. (especially, mildly, slang, vulgar)An act of urination.

   “I have to take a leak.”

verb

1. (transitive)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.”

2. (intransitive)(of a fluid or gas) To pass through an opening that should be sealed.

   “The faucet has been leaking since last month.”

   “No one realized that propane gas was leaking from a rusty tank in the concession area, slowly filling the unventilated room.”

3. (ambitransitive)To disclose secret information surreptitiously or anonymously.

   “Someone must have leaked it to our competitors that the new product will be out soon.”

   “That's another of those irregular verbs, isn't it? I give confidential press briefings; you leak; he's being charged under section 2(A) of the Official Secrets Act.”

4. (broadly, figuratively, intransitive)To pass through when it would normally or preferably be blocked.

   “A target that is not detected would not be intercepted and thus would leak through the single defensive layer.”

5. (broadly, figuratively, transitive)To allow anything through that would normally or preferably be blocked.

   “England were leaking penalties as Scotland played with pace and variety. Russell was starting to find his range and when he threaded through a grubber to Sean Maitland the winger did well to gather and keep the ball in play. Unfortunately, his pass inside just eluded Russell.”

6. (euphemistic, slang, sometimes)To urinate.

   “I had to leak in the woods since there were no toilets around.”

   “Why, you will allow vs ne're a Iourden, and then we leake in your Chimney: and your Chamber-lye breeds Fleas like a Loach.”

   “Occasionally bums passed, Mexican mothers passed with children, and the prowl car came by and the cop got out to leak, but most of the time we were alone and mixing up our souls ever more and ever more till it would be terribly hard to say good-by.”

   “Go and find a tree. I just leak against a^([sic]) oak over there.”

7. (US, slang)To bleed.

   “He shanked him, now he's leaking.”

adj

1. (obsolete)Leaky.

   “Yet is the bottle leake, and bag so torne, / That all which I put in fals out anon […].”

name

1. A surname.