ooze1
/uːz
/verb
1 [no object, with adverbial of direction] (Of a fluid) slowly trickle or seep out of something: blood was oozing from a wound in his scalp honey oozed out of the comb...
- A trickle of green blood oozed from the malachite-green hide, but it was little more than a pinprick.
- At one point we accidentally overturned a sledge and a trickle of brown liquid oozed out of the sledge onto the white snow.
- Blood oozed from the wound, trickling down his side to the towel beneath him.
Synonyms
seep, discharge, flow, exude, trickle, drip, dribble, issue, filter, percolate, escape, leak, drain, empty, bleed, sweat, well, leach;
Medicine extravasate
rare filtrate, transude, exudate
1.1 [no object] Slowly exude or discharge a viscous fluid: her mosquito bites were oozing and itching like mad...
- At every vegetable market in North Africa, and now also in the south of France, there are stalls laden with huge piles of soft lemons, oozing with juice, next to several varieties of olives.
- The symptoms of eczema can include red, itchy skin, rash, blisters or bumps that itch and ooze, or scaly, brownish, thick skin.
- I pushed it to the margins of my plate, where it oozed salty, sour juice into the rest of my food.
2 [with object] Give a powerful impression of (a quality): she oozes a raunchy sex appeal...
- The operation of the handbrake, steering, brake and clutch oozes quality, and the fittings are impressive.
- Dennis oozed star quality and charisma in a performance lasting an hour and forty minutes.
- With a sleek aluminium front panel, a mirrored display, metal-baffled speakers and high-quality drivers, the system oozes quality.
Synonyms
exude, gush, drip, pour forth, give out, send out, emit, breathe, let loose, display, exhibit, demonstrate, manifest
noun
1 [mass noun] The sluggish flow of a fluid: I picked a fruit and watched the ooze of fig milk from the stem...
- Bleeding was defined as any ooze, leaking, or frank blood drainage from the puncture site.
- Surgeons identified the source of bleeding as venous ooze from the edge of her vagina and secured haemostasis.
- It's like watching life emerge from the primordial ooze.
Synonyms
seepage, seeping, discharge, flow, exudation, trickle, trickling, drip, dribble, filtration, percolation, excretion, escape, leak, leakage, drainage, emptying, bleeding, sweating, welling, leaching, secretion;
Medicine extravasation
2An infusion of oak bark or other vegetable matter, used in tanning.
Synonyms
mud, slime, alluvium, silt, mire, bog, sludge, slush, muck, dirt, deposit;
Scottish & Northern English clart;
Irish slob
Derivatives
oozy
/ adjective (oozier, ooziest)Origin
Old English wōs 'juice or sap'; the verb dates from late Middle English.
Rhymes
ooze2
/uːz/noun [mass noun]
1Wet mud or slime, especially that found at the bottom of a river, lake, or sea: abandoned barges sunk in ooze...
- We learned that razorbacks live on the bottom of the river where they eat zooplankton, bugs, and river bottom ooze off the rocks and mud.
- In the mid-1960s, scientists dredging up ooze from the bottom of the Mediterranean began to notice a thick layer of ash that they linked to Thera's eruption.
- When the drill strikes water, there is a river of thick yellow ooze that will trap an unwary two-wheeler or a small car, in no time.
1.1 Geology A deposit of white or grey calcareous matter largely composed of foraminiferan remains, covering extensive areas of the ocean floor.Nevertheless, it is via this slow accumulation of calcareous ooze on the deep ocean floor that geologists believe chalk beds originally formed....
- Consequently, Chalk should not be perceived as merely a thick pelagic ooze deposited in a tectonically quiescent period.
- Initial deposition above the Base-Chalk reflection is interpreted as formed by pelagic settling of chalk ooze under quiet, low-energy conditions.
Derivatives
oozy
/ adjective (oozier, ooziest) ...- The tasty chocolate cake is a slightly sunken cupcake that's oozy in the centre, so oozy that the first breach results in a chocolate lava flow into the mix of cooked berries that cradle the cake.
- It didn't occur to me to suggest she wipe off her lipstick, but as she puckered up to the vinyl dummy's lips and left an oozy smear of lipstick, I felt my bile rise and my mouth opened to tell her to wipe off the dummy and her mouth.
- Crisp triangles of French toast are layered with citrus segments and indulgently oozy oil-glossed pieces of warm foie gras, the best liver known to carnivores.
Origin
Old English wāse; related to Old Norse veisa 'stagnant pool'. In Middle English and the 16th century the spelling was wose (rhyming with repose), but from 1550 spellings imply a change in pronunciation and influence by ooze1.