ooze

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See also: Ooze

English[edit]

WOTD – 10 November 2012

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

ooze (countable and uncountable, plural oozes)

  1. Tanning liquor, an aqueous extract of vegetable matter (tanbark, sumac, etc.) in a tanning vat used to tan leather.
  2. An oozing, gentle flowing, or seepage, as of water through sand or earth.
  3. (obsolete) Secretion, humour.
  4. (obsolete) Juice, sap.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

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

  1. (intransitive, sometimes figurative) To be secreted or slowly leak.
    • 1868, Charlotte Riddell, A Strange Christmas Game:
      I promised him I would keep silence, but the story gradually oozed out, and the Cronsons left the country.
    • 1988, David Drake, The Sea Hag‎[1], Baen Publishing Enterprises, published 2003, →ISBN:
      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[2], Vintage Books, published 1995, →ISBN:
      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, →ISBN, page 278:
      Her heart constricted when she saw thick blood oozing from a wide gash in his forehead.
  2. (transitive, figuratively) To give off a strong sense of (something); to exude.
    • 1989, Robert R. McCammon, The Wolf's Hour‎[3], Open Road Integrated Media, published 2011, →ISBN:
      "Good servants are so hard to find," Chesna said, oozing arrogance.
    • 1999, Tamsin Blanchard, Antonio Berardi: Sex and Sensibility, Watson-Guptill Publications, →ISBN, 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”, in BBC Sport‎[4]:
      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.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English wose, from Old English wāse (“mud, mire”), from Proto-West Germanic [Term?], from Proto-Germanic *waisǭ (compare Dutch waas (“haze, mist; bloom”), (obsolete) German Wasen (“turf, sod”), Old Norse veisa (“slime, stagnant pool”)), from Proto-Indo-European *weys- (“to flow”) (compare Sanskrit विष्यति (viṣyati, “flow, let loose”)). More at virus.

Noun[edit]

ooze (countable and uncountable, plural oozes)

  1. Soft mud, slime, or shells especially in the bed of a river or estuary.
  2. (oceanography) A pelagic marine sediment containing a significant amount of the microscopic remains of either calcareous or siliceous planktonic debris organisms.
  3. A piece of soft, wet, pliable ground.
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