leach
verb (used with object)
to dissolve out soluble constituents from (ashes, soil, etc.) by percolation.
had leached
-
past perfectof leach.past perfect
Used to express a completed action that took place before another specific past action occurred.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After the Camp Fire destroyed Paradise, California, officials didn’t initially understand that smoke and chemicals had leached into the water through broken and melted water pipes.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 19, 2023
Studies have traced the highly contagious disease to sloppy sanitation that had leached fecal waste laced with cholera germs from latrines used by the Nepalese peacekeepers into the water supply.
From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2017
The more corrosive water from the Flint River had leached lead from the city pipes more than Detroit water did, leading to the contamination.
From Reuters ● Jan. 19, 2016
Early techniques were sometimes primitive: in 1898, an article in the Journal of Medicine and Science complained that the arsenic used to preserve corpses had leached into the soil and the groundwater near cemeteries.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 30, 2015
He had surely succeeded in crossing the river, but somewhere along the watery way his memory of a mouse named Abel had leached out.
From "Abel's Island" by William Steig
