ooze

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Contents

English [edit]

WOTD – 10 November 2012    

Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

  • (Noun) Middle English wose 'sap', from Old English wōs 'sap, froth', from Proto-Germanic *wosan (cf. Middle Low German wose 'scum', Old High German wasal 'rain', Old Swedish os, oos); akin to Sanskrit वसा (vásā) 'fat'.
  • (Verb) Middle English wosen, from wose 'sap'; see above.

Noun [edit]

ooze (plural oozes)

  1. Potion of vegetable matter used for leather tanning.
  2. Secretion, humour.
  3. A thick often unpleasant liquid; muck.

Verb [edit]

ooze (third-person singular simple present oozes, present participle oozing, simple past and past participle oozed)

  1. (intransitive) To secrete or slowly leak.
    • 1988, David Drake, The Sea Hag, Baen Publishing Enterprises (2003), ISBN 0671654241, unnumbered page:
      Pale slime oozed through all the surfaces; some of it dripped from the ceiling and burned Dennis as badly as the blazing sparks had done a moment before.
    • 1994, Madeleine May Kunin, Living a Political Life, Vintage Books (1995), ISBN 9780679740087, unnumbered page:
      He was hard to understand because he spoke softly, and his Vermont accent was as thick as maple syrup oozing down a pile of pancakes.
    • 2011, Karen Mahoney, The Iron Witch, Flux (2011), ISBN 9780738725826, page 278:
      Her heart constricted when she saw thick blood oozing from a wide gash in his forehead.
  2. (intransitive, figuratively) To give off a sense of (something).
    • 1989, Robert R. McCammon, The Wolf's Hour, Open Road Integrated Media (2011), ISBN 9781453231548, unnumbered page:
      "Good servants are so hard to find," Chesna said, oozing arrogance.
    • 1999, Tamsin Blanchard, Antonio Berardi: Sex and Sensibility, Watson-Guptill Publications (1999), ISBN 9780823012077, page 16:
      There are no two ways about it: a Berardi dress oozes sex appeal from its very seams.
    • 2012 April 21, Jonathan Jurejko, “Newcastle 3-0 Stoke”, BBC Sport:
      Newcastle had failed to penetrate a typically organised Stoke backline in the opening stages but, once Cabaye and then Cisse breached their defence, Newcastle oozed confidence and controlled the game with a swagger expected of a top-four team.
Translations [edit]
to secrete or slowly leak
to give off a sense of (something)
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2 [edit]

Middle English wose, from Old English wāse 'mud, mire', from Proto-Germanic *waison (compare Dutch waas 'turf, sod', German Wasen, Old Norse veisa 'slime, stagnant pool'), from Proto-Indo-European *weis- 'to flow' (compare Sanskrit veşati 'it dissolves'). More at virus.

Noun [edit]

ooze (plural oozes)

  1. Soft mud, slime, or shells on the bottom of a body of water.
    • Shakespeare
      My son i' the ooze is bedded.
  2. A piece of soft, wet, pliable turf.
  3. The liquor of a tanning vat.
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