leaking

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of leak.

   The boat was leaking badly by the time they reached the shore.

   Fuel was leaking onto the runway before takeoff.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every sense of leak, and its subject tells you which one is meant. A container leaks something (the tank was leaking fuel). A fluid leaks on its own (oil was leaking from the hull). A person leaks information, with or without an object (an aide leaking memos to the press). The same spelling also serves as a countable noun, plural leakings, for the act of escaping.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The escape of a fluid or gas through a flaw, gap, or opening.

   The leaking of oil from the tanker created a wide slick offshore.

   Engineers traced the leaking to a cracked seal near the pump.

   Similarseepage, escape, discharge

3. 3
   noununcountableplural

   The fluid or gas that has escaped through a flaw or opening.

   The leaking pooled beneath the engine overnight.

   Workers collected the leaking in a shallow metal tray.

   Similarseepage

   Note

   The escaped stuff itself goes by this noun, and it is normally plural: leakings, the drips and seepage that get out. Lynne Conner's Pittsburgh in Stages (2007) has a theater audience raising umbrellas against the leakings through the roof. A preposition such as through names the gap they come from. When you mean the process rather than what escapes, use the act of leaking.

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