seep

Meanings

Verb

• To ooze or pass slowly through pores or other small openings, and in overly small quantities; said of liquids, etc.
• To enter or penetrate slowly; to spread or diffuse.
• To diminish or wane away slowly.

Noun

• A small spring, pool, or other spot where liquid from the ground (e.g. water, petroleum or tar) has oozed to the surface; a place of seeping.
• Moisture, liquid, gas, etc. that seeps out; a seepage.
• The seeping away of a liquid, etc.
• A seafloor vent.

Related

Similar words

• leak

Origin

• Variant of sipe, from Middle English *sipen, from Old English sipian, from Proto-Germanic *sipōną, derivative of *sīpaną (compare Middle Dutch sīpen ("to drip"), archaic German seifen ("to trickle blood")), from Proto-Indo-European *seyb-, *sib- (compare Latin sēbum ("suet, tallow"), Ancient Greek εἴβω ("to drop, drip"). See soap.