ooze

¹ American  

[ooz] / uz /

verb (used without object)

oozes, present (3rd person singular) oozed, past participle, past oozing present participle

1. (of moisture, liquid, etc.) to flow, percolate, or exude slowly, as through holes or small openings.

2. to move or pass slowly or gradually, as if through a small opening or passage.

   The crowd oozed toward the entrance.

3. (of a substance) to exude moisture.

4. (of something abstract, as information or courage) to appear or disappear slowly or imperceptibly (often followed by out oraway ).

   His cockiness oozed away during my rebuttal speech.

5. to display some characteristic or quality.

   to ooze with piety.

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verb (used with object)

oozes, present (3rd person singular) oozed, past participle, past oozing present participle

1. to make by oozing.

2. to exude (moisture, air, etc.) slowly.

3. to display or dispense freely and conspicuously.

   He can ooze charm when it serves his interest.

noun

1. the act of oozing.

2. something that oozes.

   Synonyms:

   sludge, muck, mud, mire, slime

3. an infusion of oak bark, sumac, etc., used in tanning.

ooze ² American  

[ooz] / uz /

noun

1. Geology. a calcareous or siliceous mud composed chiefly of the shells of one-celled organisms, covering parts of the ocean bottom.

2. soft mud, or slime.

3. a marsh or bog.

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ooze ¹ British  

/ uːz /

verb

1. (intr) to flow or leak out slowly, as through pores or very small holes

2. to exude or emit (moisture, gas, etc)

3. (tr) to overflow with

   to ooze charm

4. to disappear or escape gradually

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noun

1. a slow flowing or leaking

2. an infusion of vegetable matter, such as sumach or oak bark, used in tanning

ooze ² British  

/ uːz /

noun

1. a soft thin mud found at the bottom of lakes and rivers

2. a fine-grained calcareous or siliceous marine deposit consisting of the hard parts of planktonic organisms

3. muddy ground, esp of bogs

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• oozing
  present
• oozed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• ooze
  simple
• oozes
  simple
• have oozed
  perfect
• has oozed
  perfect
• am oozing
  progressive
• are oozing
  progressive
• is oozing
  progressive
• have been oozing
  perfect progressive
• has been oozing
  perfect progressive

Past

• oozed
  simple
• had oozed
  perfect
• was oozing
  progressive
• were oozing
  progressive
• had been oozing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will ooze
  simple
• will have oozed
  perfect
• will be oozing
  progressive
• will have been oozing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of ooze¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English noun wose, woze, Old English wōs “juice, moisture”; verb derivative of the noun

Origin of ooze²

First recorded before 900; Middle English wose, woze, Old English wāse “mud, slime”

Explanation

The beauty of the word ooze is not only that it's both a noun and a verb but also that the word sounds like what it means. The ooze on the bottom of the pond oozed between your toes. When something oozes, it seeps out slowly in an unappetizing way. Cheese sauce oozes out of the container. Sludge oozes out of a treatment plant. Cream oozes out of a tube. Whatever is oozing is referred to as ooze. After an oil spill, a cleanup crew has to clean up the ooze that collects on the shore. It can also be used to describe someone's behavior if it's especially awful. A person who is really bad, for example, can be said to ooze evil.

Example Sentences

“Seems to me like getting up an inquess, sir,” said Dredge the butcher, “with ooz all dodging about here with our lights, like so many will-o’-the-wispies.”

From The Weathercock Being the Adventures of a Boy with a Bias by Cooper, A.W.

They’re allus feitin’ agen the mesters, and generally for nowt, and it’s ooz as has to suffer.”

From Patience Wins War in the Works by Fenn, George Manville

Related Words

• bleed
• drain
• dribble
• exude
• leak
• percolate
• seep
• trickle