ooze

¹ American  

[ooz] / uz /

verb (used without object)

oozed, oozing

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)

oozed, oozing

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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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

One close to the seafront, where the near-200-year-old golf club gives way to a spectacular view across the Firth of Forth to the Bass Rock, has its keypad caked in a sticky black ooze.

From BBC • Mar. 1, 2026

But nearly two years later, water started to ooze from a different well in the same area, a sign that bottling up the geyser likely repressurized the subsurface and triggered the new outburst, scientists said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 26, 2025

This meant, however, that only four monks guarded the tomb of St. Nicholas, down in the city, carrying on their ancient duties, filling decorative glass vials with the ooze that drizzled from his corpse.

From Slate • Dec. 15, 2024

A producer, her thumbprints evident in a track’s chic minimalism or ooze of West Coast.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 4, 2024

It smashed there and fell, leaving a mixture of shattered glass and lotion to ooze down the wall after it.

From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson

Related Words

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