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”); surface analysis as 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 sealed.

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

Derived terms

• leakiness
• leaky abstraction
• leaky gut syndrome
• nonleaky

Translations

having leaks; allows contents to escape

• Maori: turuturu, wairere
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Spanish: permeable, gotoso (es) m, gotosa (es) f, fugoso m, fugosa f

Anagrams

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