different between leak vs reak

English

Etymology

From Middle English leken (“to let water in or out”), from Middle Dutch leken (“to leak, drip”) or Old Norse leka (“to leak, drip”); both from Proto-Germanic *lekan? (“to leak, drain”), from Proto-Indo-European *leg-, *le?- (“to leak”).

Cognate with Dutch lekken (“to leak”), German lechen, lecken (“to leak”), Swedish läcka (“to leak”), Icelandic leka (“to leak”). Related also to Old English le??an (“to water, wet”), Albanian lag, lak (“I damp, make wet”). See also leach, lake.

Pronunciation

• enPR: l?k, IPA^(key): /li?k/
• Rhymes: -i?k
• Homophone: leek

Noun

leak (plural leaks)

1. A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.

   a leak in a roof

   a leak in a boat

   a leak in a gas pipe

2. The entrance or escape of a fluid through a crack, fissure, or other aperture.

   The leak gained on the ship's pumps.

   The babies' diapers had big leaks.

3. A divulgation, or disclosure, of information previously held secret.

   The leaks by Chelsea Manning showed the secrets of the US military.

4. The person through whom such divulgation, or disclosure, occurs.

   The press must have learned about the plan through a leak.

5. A loss of electricity through imperfect insulation, or the point where it occurs.
6. (computing) The gradual loss of a system resource caused by failure to deallocate previously reserved portions.

   resource leak

   memory leak

7. (vulgar, slang, especially with the verb "take") An act of urination.

   I have to take a leak.

Derived terms

• gas leak
• leaky
• memory leak

Translations

Verb

leak (third-person singular simple present leaks, present participle leaking, simple past and past participle leaked)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To allow fluid or gas to pass through an opening that should be sealed.

2. (intransitive) (of a fluid or gas) To pass through an opening that should be sealed.

3. (transitive, intransitive) To disclose secret information surreptitiously or anonymously.
4. (intransitive, figuratively, by extension) To pass through when it would normally or preferably be blocked.
   • 1989, Kenneth N. Luongo, ?W. Thomas Wander, The Search for Security in Space (page 149)

     A target that is not detected would not be intercepted and thus would leak through the single defensive layer.

5. (transitive, figuratively, by extension) To allow anything through that would normally or preferably be blocked.

Translations

Adjective

leak (comparative more leak, superlative most leak)

1. (obsolete) Leaky.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.8:

     Yet is the bottle leake, and bag so torne, / That all which I put in fals out anon […].

Anagrams

• Akel, Alek, Kale, Lake, ka le, kale, lake

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li?k/

Verb

leak

1. singular imperative of leaken
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of leaken

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??i?k/

Etymology 1

Compare Icelandic hrekkr, or English wreak vengeance.

Noun

reak (plural reaks)

1. (obsolete) A prank.

   • They play such reaks.

Etymology 2

Compare wrack (“seaweed”).

Noun

reak (plural reaks)

1. A rush.
   • a. 1578, Thomas Drant, A medicinable morall

     Feedes on reaks and reeds.

Anagrams

• KERA, Kear, Kera, Rake, aker, rake