leak
- an unintended hole, crack, or the like, through which liquid, gas, light, etc., enters or escapes: a leak in the roof.
- an act or instance of leaking.
- any means of unintended entrance or escape.
- Electricity. the loss of current from a conductor, usually resulting from poor insulation.
- a disclosure of secret, especially official, information, as to the news media, by an unnamed source.
- to let a liquid, gas, light, etc., enter or escape, as through an unintended hole or crack: The boat leaks.
- to pass in or out in this manner, as liquid, gas, or light: gas leaking from a pipe.
- to become known unintentionally (usually followed by out): The news leaked out.
- to disclose secret, especially 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.
- to let (liquid, gas, light, etc.) enter or escape: This camera leaks light.
- to allow to become known, as information given out covertly: to leak the news of the ambassador's visit.
- take a leak, Slang: Vulgar. to urinate.
Origin of leak
Examples from the Web for leaker
Contemporary Examples
The NFL and the rest of us were suddenly outraged, just as the leaker must have hoped.
Ray Rice Should Have Remembered His 'Kindness' Anti-Bullying WristbandMichael Daly
September 10, 2014
But, of course, it only took one leaker for these photos to be shared around the world.
'The Fappening' and Revenge Porn Culture: Jennifer Lawrence and the Creepshot EpidemicAmanda Marcotte
September 3, 2014
Within hours, the leaker decided to write an op-ed to clarify his position.
On the one hand, one might say that because the leak was unlawful the leaker should not be protected.
Many foreign governments are still angry about the disclosures of NSA spying by leaker Edward Snowden.
leak
- a crack, hole, etc, that allows the accidental escape or entrance of fluid, light, etc
- such escaping or entering fluid, light, etc
- spring a leak to develop a leak
- something resembling this in effecta leak in the defence system
- the loss of current from an electrical conductor because of faulty insulation, etc
- a disclosure, often intentional, of secret information
- the act or an instance of leaking
- a slang word for urinationSee urination
- to enter or escape or allow to enter or escape through a crack, hole, etc
- (when intr, often foll by out) to disclose (secret information), often intentionally, or (of secret information) to be disclosed
- (intr) a slang word for urinate
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for leaker
leak
n.
late 15c., from leak (v.) or Old Norse cognate leki. Sense of "revelation of secret information" is from 1950. Meaning "act of urination" is attested from 1934 ("Tropic of Cancer"); but the verb meaning "to piss" is from 1590s: "Why, you will allow vs ne're a Iourden, and then we leake in your Chimney." ["I Hen. IV," II.i.22]
leak
v.
"to let water in or out" [Johnson], late 14c., from Middle Dutch leken "to drip, to leak," or from Old Norse leka, both of them related to Old English leccan "to moisten" (which did not survive into Middle English), all from Proto-Germanic *lek- "deficiency" (cf. Old High German lecchen "to become dry," German lechzen "to be parched with thirst"), from PIE root *leg- "to dribble, trickle." The figurative meaning "come to be known in spite of efforts at concealment" dates from at least 1832; transitive sense first recorded 1859. Related: Leaked; leaking.