| 释义 |
▪ I. leak, n.|liːk|
Forms: 5–6 leke, 6 Sc. lek, 6–7 leake, 7 Sc. leck, 8 lake, 7– leak.
[First recorded late in 15th c.; the proximate source is uncertain; perh., like many other nautical terms, adopted from LG. or Du.; cf. LG., MDu. lek, inflected lēk- (whence G. leck, Da. læk; the G. lecke, Sw. läcka are f. the vb.), Du. lek; equivalent forms are Ger. dial. lech, leche, ON. leke str. masc. It is possible that the Eng. word, notwithstanding its late appearance, may represent an adoption of the ON. form, or even an OE. cognate. The exact relation between the n. and the adj. and vb. is undetermined.]
1. a. A hole or fissure in a vessel containing or immersed in a fluid, by which the latter enters or escapes from the vessel, so as to cause loss or injury: said orig. and esp. of ships; also in phr. † to fall in leak, to spring a leak.
1487Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 25 The stopping of lekes. 1497Ibid. 131 Lost in a ship..by occasion of a leke falling in the same. 1513Douglas æneis vi. vi. 67 The jonit barge, Sa full of riftis, and with lekkis perbraik. 1531–2Act 23 Hen. VIII c. 7 If..the shippe..happen to fall in leke. 1558W. Towrson in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 122 We found a great leake in the stemme of our ship. c1620Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 11 Consider well before a leck begin, It seemes I heare the water wheesing in. 1624Capt. Smith Virginia vi. 230 The next day the lesser ship sprung a leake. 1626― Accid. Yng. Sea-men 19 Sling a man ouerboord to stop the leake. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. i. viii. 20 Many little leaks may sink a ship. 1727Philip Quarll 56 We found our Ship had sprung a Lake. 1782Cowper Loss Roy. George 19 She sprang no fatal leak. 1814Scott Ld. of Isles i. xviii, Rent was the sail, and strain'd the mast, And many a leak was gaping fast.
b. transf. and fig.
1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. ix. §2 There..will be alwaies euils, which no arte of man can cure, breaches and leakes moe then mans wit hath hands to stop. 1602Marston Antonio's Rev. iv. ii. Wks. 1856 I. 120 Fooles, That can not search the leakes of his defectes. 1622Hakewill David's Vow vi. 229 It being the property of a foole to be full of leakes. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) xx. xxxv. 257 A leak in the waistcoat-pocket in which you carry all your money. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life x. viii. (1875) 373 An able finance minister who has found means of closing a great leak in the treasury. 1900Ld. Rosebery Napoleon xvi. 246 Russia was the fatal leak in his Continental System.
c. Electr. A path or component of relatively high resistance through which a small current flows.
1896T. E. Herbert Electricity in Application to Telegr. xvii. 81 B is connected to earth as is the end of our 40 ohm leak. 1919[see grid leak (grid 5 b)]. 1940Amat. Radio Handbk. (ed. 2) ii. 33/2 The grid will take up a potential such that the current from grid to filament equals the current through the leak in either the positive or negative half cycle. 1966[see grid leak (grid 5 b)].
d. An improper or deliberate disclosure of information (e.g. for political purposes).
1950H. D. Lasswell National Security ii. 34 Americans are accustomed to ‘government by leak’. 1957Economist 28 Sept. 1004/2 The allegation of a ‘leak’ about last Thursday's increase in Bank rate has brought forth understandable indignation from those City dealers whose fingers were burned, and an equally understandable demand by the Labour Party for a full inquiry. 1960L. Cooper Accomplices i. ii. 17 Confidential stuff about a security leak from one of our research stations. 1960News Chron. 30 Apr. 4/2 No agenda, no communiqué, no inspired leaks. 1965H. Kahn On Escalation iii. 56 In..1964, the United States and the Chinese engaged in a series of such semiformal leaks and announcements about the war in Vietnam. 1967Punch 4 Oct. 509/3 Long among the most skilled practitioners of leak journalism. 1973Guardian 10 Apr. 15/3 The EEC Commission spent an hour and a half..discussing leaks and how to plug them (or so it is reliably leaked to Miscellany).
2. a. The action of leaking; leakage.
1828–32in Webster. 1896Academy 11 Apr. 399/1 In hydrogen the leak was slowest... The rate of leak in the halogens is also very rapid.
b. Electr. Leakage of electric charge or current (see leakage 2 b).
1863R. S. Culley Handbk. Pract. Telegr. iv. 65 Suppose..a fault to occur connecting the wire to the earth, and offering a resistance equal to that of 20 miles of the line. This ‘leak’ will lessen the total resistance of the circuit..as if a wire 20 miles long..were fixed to the line at the fault. 1893[see leakance]. 1895Thompson & Thomas Electr. Tab. & Mem. 52 It will..show the position of a leak from one wire to another. 1906Phil. Mag. XII. 403 With very thin paper..no discharge could be observed, whilst in the case of aluminium leaf 0·0005 mm. in thickness a difference in the rate of leak was observed. 1939Post Office Electr. Engineers' Jrnl. XXXII. 138 (heading) The localization of small leaks in the underground transmission line system at Cooling Radio Station.
c. slang. An act of urination. Freq. in phr. to take a leak, to urinate. Cf. leak v. 2 c.
1934H. Miller Tropic of Cancer 182, I stood there taking a leak. 1968K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 111, I saw Sam get out of the Rover... I thought he'd got out for a leak. 1969G. Greene Trav. with my Aunt ii. vi. 282 All these hours of standing without taking a leak. 1972F. Raphael April, June & Nov. 283 ‘The guest toilets at the Palace aren't really all that marvellous.’ ‘..Thanks for the tip, I'll remember to take a leak before I go next time.’
3. attrib. and Comb.: leak-alarm, -indicator, -signal, devices for indicating the rising or accumulation of water in the hold of a ship (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875); leak detector, any device for detecting leaks of fluid; leak-proof a., not subject to leaks.
1921Chambers's Jrnl. July 454/2 Each bag..is inflated with air and examined all over its surface with leak-detectors. 1968Non-Destructive Testing I. 215/1 Shell have developed a portable hydrocarbon leak detector to facilitate the overhaul of [gas] mains.
1926Kitchen Kook (Amer. Gas Mach. Co. Inc.) 3 The fuel..is contained in an electrically welded, leakproof, steel tank. 1929Daily Express 8 Jan. 8/5 Waste heat in leak-proof pipes to towns near the coalfields. 1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 15 Mar. 44/2 (caption) It's leakproof. 1971Engineering Apr. 92/2 (Advt.), Instant..safe..leakproof joints... A pipeline which is flexible while remaining absolutely leak-proof.
▪ II. † leak, a. Obs.
Forms: 1 hlec, 6 lek(e, 6–7 leake, 7 Sc. leck.
[In OE. hlec; after OE. the word does not appear until the 16th c. when it may have been adopted from LG., MDu. lek (inflected lēk-), whence mod.Du. lek, Sw. läck, Da. læk, G. leck; cogn. w. ON. lekr, Ger. dial. lech of the same meaning, and with leak n. and v.
The OE. form presents difficulties; the spelling hlec occurs in the Hatton MS. of the Pastoral Care (9th c.) and in at least three glosses, so that it cannot well be a mere error; on the other hand the (apparently) cognate words in the other Teut. langs. show no trace of the h; in the ON. vb. leka the initial l (not hl) is attested by the alliteration.]
= leaky.
c897K. ælfred Gregory's Past. lvii. 437 Swiðe lytlum sicerað ðæt wæter & swiðe deᵹellice on ðæt hlece scip. c1100in Napier Glosses ii. 480 Rimosa, hlec. a1530Heywood Play Weather (Brandl) 800 Olde moones be leake, they can holde no water. 1544Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844) I. 205 The Inglismen..knawand that thair schip was lek, geve thaim thair leif. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. v. 35 And fifty sisters water in leke [ed. 1596 leake] vessels draw. 1622R. Hawkins Voy. S. Sea (1847) 131 Thus, this leake-ship went well into England. 1626Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Sea-men 13 A ship cranke sided, Iron sicke, spewes her okum, a leake ship. 1637–50Row Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.) 398 The ship not tight enough, being leck. a1678Marvell Poems, Char. Holland 45 Who best could know to pump an earth so leak.
▪ III. leak, v.|liːk|
Forms: 5 leke, 6 leeke, Sc. (also 8 north.) leck, 6–7 leake, Sc. lek(k, 6– leak.
[Not found before c 1420, but prob. much older; a. or cogn. with ON. leka str. vb. (pa. tense lak) to drip, to leak, corresponding to OHG. *lechen str. vb., found only in composition (pa. pple. zelechen leaky), MHG. and dial. mod.G. lechen wk., to crack from drought, become leaky, MDu. leken (pa. tense lak) to let water through, drip; f. Teut. root *lek-, ablaut variant of *lak-: see lack a.
It is very likely that in later use the vb. was formed afresh from leak n. or a. Sense 5 may be plausibly explained as a development from sense 2, but it is not wholly impossible that it may be a distinct word, a var. of leach v., OE. lęccan. The LG. lecken (whence Sw. läcka, Da. lække, G. lecken) is derived from, or at least refashioned after, the equivalent of leak a. or n.]
1. a. intr. To pass (out, away, forth) by a leak or leakage. Also fig., to pass away by gradual waste.
c1420Pallad. on Husb. vi. 33 Let diche hit deep that humour out may leke, If hit be weet. 1648Wilkins Math. Magick ii. v. 181 It is easie to conceive how..the water, which will perhaps by degrees leak into several parts, may be emptyed out again. a1728Woodward Nat. Hist. Fossils i. (1729) I. 243 A Crack, through which a small quantity of the Liquor leak'd forth. 1791Paine Rights of Man (ed. 4) 154 The gold and silver..leak continually away by unseen means, at the average rate of about three quarters of a million a-year. 1863R. S. Culley Handbk. Pract. Telegr. vii. 106 The dampness of the insulators enables part of the electricity to leak or escape from one wire to another, and to the earth. 1890Spectator 23 Aug., A democracy that has allowed its chief political interests to leak away. 1917G. D. Shepardson Telephone Apparatus xiv. 224 Little talking current ‘leaked’ through the signaling equipment. 1959Which? Winter 37/1 If there is a fault in an electrical appliance and current leaks to the exposed parts.
b. to leak out (fig.): to transpire or become known in spite of efforts at concealment.
1832Webster, To leak out,..to escape privately from confinement or secresy; as a fact or report. 1834S. Smith Sel. Lett. J. Downing 58 If it should leak out that I was going. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xiv. 33 We had heard rumours of such a ship to follow us, which had leaked out from the captain. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xix, I can see it leaking out in fifty different ways—just that same strong, overbearing, dominant spirit. 1884Manch. Exam. 27 May 5/1 The outcry which was raised when the rumour of it leaked out. 1884‘Rita’ Vivienne ii. v, The carefully-guarded secret had leaked out in some way or other.
2. To allow the passage of fluid through a leak:
a. inwards.
1513Douglas æneis i. iii. 50 Thai all leckit, and salt watter stremis Fast bullerand in at every ryft and boir. 1530Palsgr. 606/1, I leeke, as a shyppe or bote dothe that taketh in water... Labour well, syrs, at the pompe, for our shyppe leaketh. 1555Eden Decades 229 One of theyr shyppes leaked and toke water very sore. a1568Satir. Poems Reform. xlvi. 19 Gif scho lekkis, gett men of skill To stop hir hoilis laich in þe howis. 1708J. Philips Cyder ii. 66 Against a secret Cliff..A Ship is dash'd, and leaking drinks the Sea. 1873Browning Red Cott. Nt.-cap 1317 Carried pick-a-back by Eldobert Big-baby-fashion, lest his leathers leak!
b. outwards.
1530Palsgr. 606/1 This hogges heed of wyne leaketh. 1557N. T. (Genev.) Heb. ii. 1 note, Lest like vessells ful of chappes we leake, and renne out on euery part. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. iv. 47 That the vnited Vessell of their Blood (Mingled with Venome of Suggestion..) Shall neuer leake, though it doe worke as strong As Aconitum, or rash Gun-powder. a1605Montgomerie Misc. Poems xxxvii. 21 Go to—vhat rek? and gar the bealing brek; For, fra it lek, I hald the danger done. 1835Sir J. Ross Narr. 2nd Voy. vi. 86 The starboard boiler began to leak.
c. To ‘make water’. (vulgar.)
1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. i. 22 Why, you will allow vs ne're a Iourden, and then we leake in your Chimney. a1661B. Holyday Juvenal 51 Some great ones drinking so hard, that they even leak'd on their supper couches. 1673Dryden Amboyna v. i. 54 Boy, give me some Tobacco, and a Stope of Wine..And a Tub to leak in Boy; when was this Table without a leaking Vessel? 1731Swift Strephon & Chloe 164 Twelve cups of tea (with grief I speak) Had now constrain'd the nymph to leak. 1796in Grose's Dict. Vulg. Tongue. 1957J. Kerouac On Road (1958) 90 The prowl car came by and the cop got out to leak. 1971D. E. Westlake I gave at the Office (1972) 173, I kept thinking he'd come back from the john—how long can one man leak?
†3. pass. To have sprung a leak; to be emptied by leakage. Obs.
1607Shakes. Timon iv. ii. 19 Leak'd is our Barke. 1622in Bradford Plymouth Plantation (1856) 138 Within 14. days after she [a ship] came againe hither, being dangerously leaked and brused with tempestious stormes. 1699W. Dampier Voy. II. iii. vi. 69 Some of the Rum they found,..a Cask in one place, and a Cask in another;..some staved against the Trees, and leeked out. 1748Anson's Voy. iii. iv. 333 We..found many of our casks so decayed, as to be half leaked out.
4. a. trans. To let (water, etc.) in or out through a leak. ? Now U.S. only.
1687Hooke in Hist. Royal Soc. (1757) IV. 548 It would be next to impossible to make pipes to hold so perfectly as not to leak air in some parts. 1692Locke Educ. §7 (1693) 6 To have his Shooes made so, as to leak Water. 1889Cent. Dict. s.v., The pipe leaks gas; the roof leaks rain.
†b. fig. To cause to run out or escape.
1655W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. i. 94 When a Christian is flush of comfort, then Satan lies upon the catch, then to inveigle a Saint into one sin or other, which he knows will soon leak out his joy.
c. To allow the disclosure of (secret or confidential information). (Cf. sense 1 b and leak n. 1 d.) Also intr. Hence leaked ppl. a.
1859G. W. Matsell Vocabulum 50 Leak, to impart a secret. 1916W. Owen Let. Aug. (1967) 402 Here I am beginning to ‘Leak information’, (when I have to read daily a solemn W.O. Letter, saying that no talk of the War is ever to be indulged in, even in private letters.) 1954Encounter June 11/1 In practice [the dial number] was a secret in name only, since supervisors were instructed to ‘leak’ the number ‘confidentially’ to various employees. 1958Punch 3 Nov. 10/3 It seemed pretty clear from what the F.O. had leaked to us that Bonaparte had crossed the Niemen. 1958Ann. Reg. 1957 195 In a miscalculated effort to prepare the public and Congress for the new doctrine, it had been deliberately ‘leaked’ well beforehand. 1959John o' London's 26 Nov. 265/3 A..U.S. Air Force sergeant..promptly scares off the circling sharks by leaking information about her non-existent husband. 1962Listener 25 Oct. 647/2 The Council Fathers are supposed to maintain complete discretion, though almost all of them ‘leak’ to the press. 1971Daily Tel. 14 July 3/4 It was not sufficient for the tribunal merely to establish by whose hand information..was improperly leaked. 1972Times 30 Sept. 3/1 Legislation covering ‘leaked’ information is proposed by the Franks Committee on Official Secrets. 1973[see leak n. 1 d].
5. Brewing. To cause (liquor) to run over, on, off, in small quantities or by degrees. Obs. exc. dial.
Cf. Sc. ‘To lek, leck, to pour water over bark or other substance, in order to obtain a decoction; to strain off, Clydes[dale]’ (Jam.). See also leck v. in Eng. Dial. Dict.
1674Ray N.C. Words 29 Leck on, poure on more, Liquor, v.g. 1743Lond. & Country Brew ii. (ed. 2) 119 Put your Malt in by Degrees, and stir it..then leak on your Complement. Ibid. 122 Leaking over.—Is what may be called putting over the Malt, at Times, many Hand-bowls of Water, that it may run gradually off, and wash away the Flower of the Malt by a slow Degree. 1788W. Marshall E. Yorksh. II. 339 To Leck-on to add more water, as in brewing. 1790Trans. Soc. Arts VIII. 151 Draining the liquor through a sieve, instead of leaking it off gradually. |