leach

plural leaches

1. A quantity of wood ashes, through which water passes, and thus imbibes the alkali.
2. A tub or vat for leaching ashes, bark, etc.

   "This is the leach," said Kitty, pointing to a large, yellowish, upright wooden cylinder, which rested on some slanting boards, down the surface of which ran a brownish liquid that dripped into a trough.

   1894, Robert Barr, chapter 7, in In the Midst of Alarms

3. alternativenauticalAlternative spelling of leech.
4. A jelly-like sweetmeat popular in the fifteenth century.

present singular third person leaches · participle present leaching · participle past leached · past leached

1. transitiveTo purge a soluble matter out of something by the action of a percolating fluid.

   Heavy rainfall can leach out minerals important for plant growth from the soil.

   1 more example

   [T]he very wet winter will have washed much of the goodness out of the soil. Homemade compost and the load of manure we get from a friendly farmer may not be enough to compensate for what has leached from the ground.

   2014 April 21, Mary Keen, “You can still teach an old gardener new tricks: Even the hardiest of us gardeners occasionally learn useful new techniques [print version: Gardening is always ready to teach even the hardiest of us a few new tricks, 19 April 2014]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening), page G7

2. intransitiveTo part with soluble constituents by percolation.

   The gangue was leached to recover minerals left behind by the original technology.

3. figurativelyintransitiveTo bleed; to seep.

   A more generic geography, one where the suburb uneasily abuts the commercial and industrial, or leaches out to a nonurban frontier.

   2007, Andrew Shanken, “The Sublime "Jackass"”, in Places, volume 19

   1 more example

   There's a second half to each video. He remembers now. He watched it passively, over and over, and never saw it. Something comes through. It's been leaching into the background of the world this whole time, in plain sight, and he never saw it, and it's here now—

   2019 April 10, qntm, “CASE HATE RED”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 140

plural Leaches · alternative Latch · alternative Leech · alternative Leetch · alternative Leitch · alternative Litch · alternative Lytch

1. countableuncountableA surname from Old English.
2. countableuncountableA census-designated place in Delaware County, Oklahoma, United States.
3. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Carroll County, Tennessee, United States.
4. countableuncountableA river in Gloucestershire, with a short stretch in Oxfordshire, England, which joins the Thames at Lechlade; in full, the River Leach.