leaky

English

Etymology

Likely a normalisation ( +‎ -y) of earlier leak, leake, leke (“leaky”, adj), from Middle English leke (“leaky”), from Old English hlec, *lec (“having cracks or rents; leaky”), from Proto-Germanic *lekaz (“leaking; leaky”). By surface analysis, leak +‎ -y. Cognate with Scots lek, leck (“leaky”), Saterland Frisian läk (“leaky”), Dutch lek (“leaky”), German Low German leck (“leaky”), German leck (“leaky”), Swedish läck (“leaky”), Icelandic lekur (“leaky”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈliːki/
• Rhymes: -iːki
• Homophone: leeky

Adjective

leaky (comparative leakier, superlative leakiest)

1. Having leaks; not fully sealed.

   The leaky bucket dripped only one drop at a time, but by the time I got back to the house it was half empty.

   The ceiling was so leaky that someone had to fix it.

   • 1983, Michael Stephenson, Roger Hearn, The Nuclear Case Book:

     Nuclear reactors in Russian submarines are said to be so leaky that crews are often paid "sterility money".

Derived terms

• leakiness
• leaky abstraction
• leaky brain syndrome
• leaky bucket
• leaky gut syndrome
• nonleaky

 

Translations

having leaks; allows contents to escape

• Amharic: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: please add this translation if you can
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: vuotava (fi)
• French: percé (fr)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: undicht (de)
• Greek: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: folyó (hu), lyukas (hu)
• Italian: please add this translation if you can
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: fūtilis
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: turuturu, wairere
• Plautdietsch: lakjsch
• Polish: nieszczelny (pl)
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: please add this translation if you can
• Slovene: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: permeable
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: rò rỉ, rò (vi), rỉ (vi)

Anagrams

• Eakly, Kaley, Kealy, Keyla, Lakey, kayle, leyak