Forms: 5 leke, 6 leeke, Sc. (also 8 north.) leck, 6–7 leake, Sc. lek(k, 6– leak. [Not found before c. 1420, but prob. much older; a. or cogn. with ON. leka str. vb. (pa. t. lak) to drip, to leak, corresponding to OHG. *lechen str. vb., found only in composition (pa. pple. zelechen leaky), MHG. and dial. mod.G. lechen wk., to crack from drought, become leaky, MDu. leken (pa. t. lak) to let water through, drip; f. Teut. root *lek-, ablaut variant of *lak-: see LACK a.
It is very likely that in later use the vb. was formed afresh from LEAK sb. or a. Sense 5 may be plausibly explained as a development from sense 2, but it is not wholly impossible that it may be a distinct word, a var. of LEACH v., OE. lęccan. The LG. lecken (whence Sw. läcka, Da. lække, G. lecken) is derived from, or at least refashioned after, the equivalent of LEAK a. or sb.]
1. intr. To pass (out, away, forth) by a leak or leakage. Also fig., to pass away by gradual waste.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., VI. 33. Let diche hit deep that humour out may leke, If hit be weet.
1648. Wilkins, Math. Magick, II. v. 181. It is easie to conceive how … the water, which will perhaps by degrees leak into several parts, may be emptyed out again.
a. 1728. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Fossils, I. (1729), I. 243. A Crack, through which a small quantity of the Liquor leak’d forth.
1791. Paine, Rights of Man (ed. 4), 154. The gold and silver … leak continually away by unseen means, at the average rate of about three quarters of a million a-year.
1890. Spectator, 23 Aug., 232/1. A democracy that has allowed its chief political interests to leak away is about the most dangerous of powerful instruments.
b. To leak out (fig.): to transpire or become known in spite of efforts at concealment.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xiv. 33. We had heard rumours of such a ship to follow us, which had leaked out from the captain.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xix. I can see it leaking out in fifty different ways—just that same strong, overbearing, dominant spirit.
1884. Manch. Exam., 27 May, 5/1. The outcry which was raised when the rumour of it leaked out.
1884. ‘Rita,’ Vivienne, II. v. The carefully-guarded secret had leaked out in some way or other.
2. To allow the passage of fluid through a leak: a. inwards.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, I. iii. 50. Thai all leckit, and salt watter stremis Fast bullerand in at every ryft and boir.
1530. Palsgr., 606/1. I leeke, as a shyppe or bote dothe that taketh in water…. Labour well, syrs, at the pompe, for our shyppe leaketh.
1555. Eden, Decades, 229. One of theyr shyppes leaked and toke water very sore.
a. 1568. Satir. Poems Reform., xlvi. 19. Gif scho lekkis, gett men of skill To stop hir hoilis laich in þe howis.
1708. J. Philips, Cyder, II. 66. Against a secret Cliff … A Ship is dash’d, and leaking drinks the Sea.
1873. Browning, Red Cott. Nt.-cap, 1317. Carried pick-a-back by Eldobert Big-baby-fashion, lest his leathers leak!
b. outwards.
1530. Palsgr., 606/1. This hogges heed of wyne leaketh.
1557. N. T. (Genev.), Heb. ii. 1, note. Lest like vessells ful of chappes we leake, and renne out on euery part.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. iv. 47. That the vnited Vessell of their Blood (Mingled with Venome of Suggestion…) Shall neuer leake, though it doe worke as strong As Aconitum, or rash Gun-powder.
a. 1605. Montgomerie, Misc. Poems, xxxvii. 21. Go to—vhat rek? and gar the bealing brek; For, fra it lek, I hald the danger done.
1835. Sir J. Ross, Narr. 2nd Voy., vi. 86. The starboard boiler began to leak.
† c. To ‘make water.’ Obs. (vulgar.)
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. i. 22. Why, you will allow vs ne’re a Iourden, and then we leake in your Chimney.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal, 51. Some great ones drinking so hard, that they even leak’d on their supper couches.
1673. Dryden, Amboyna, V. i. 54. Boy, give me some Tobacco, and a Stope of Wine … And a Tub to leak in Boy; when was this Table without a leaking Vessel?
1731. Swift, Strephon & Chloe, 164. Twelve cups of tea (with grief I speak) Had now constrain’d the nymph to leak.
1796. in Grose’s Dict. Vulg. Tongue.
† 3. pass. To have sprung a leak; to be emptied by leakage. Obs.
1607. Shaks., Timon, IV. ii. 19. Leak’d is our Barke.
1622. in Bradford, Plymouth Plantation (1856), 138. Within 14. days after she [a ship] came againe hither, being dangerously leaked and brused with tempestious stormes.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. III. vi. 69. Some of the Rum they found,… a Cask in one place, and a Cask in another;… some staved against the Trees, and leeked out.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. iv. 333. We … found many of our casks so decayed, as to be half leaked out.
4. trans. To let (water, etc.) in or out through a leak. ? Now U.S. only.
1687. Hooke, in Hist. Royal Soc. (1757), IV. 548. It would be next to impossible to make pipes to hold so perfectly as not to leak air in some parts.
1692. Locke, Educ., § 7 (1693), 6. To have his Shooes made so, as to leak Water.
1889. Cent. Dict., s.v., The pipe leaks gas; the roof leaks rain.
† b. fig. To cause to run out or escape.
1655. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., I. 94. When a Christian is flush of comfort, then Satan lies upon the catch, then to inveigle a Saint into one sin or other, which he knows will soon leak out his joy.
5. Brewing. To cause (liquor) to run over, on, off, in small quantities or by degrees. Obs. exc. dial.
Cf. Sc. ‘To lek, leck, to pour water over bark or other substance, in order to obtain a decoction; to strain off, Clydes[dale]’ (Jam.). See also LECK v. in Eng. Dial. Dict.
1674. Ray, N. C. Words, 29. Leck on, poure on more, Liquor, v.g.
1743. Lond. & Country Brewer, II. (ed. 2), 119. Put your Malt in by Degrees, and stir it … then leak on your Complement. Ibid., 122. Leaking over.—Is what may be called putting over the Malt, at Times, many Hand-bowls of Water, that it may run gradually off, and wash away the Flower of the Malt by a slow Degree.
1788. W. Marshall, E. Yorksh., II. 339. To Leck-on, to add more water, as in brewing.
1790. Trans. Soc. Arts, VIII. 151. Draining the liquor through a sieve, instead of leaking it off gradually.
