seep

present singular third person seeps · participle present seeping · participle past seeped · past seeped

1. intransitiveTo ooze or pass slowly through pores or other small openings, and in overly small quantities; said of liquids, etc.

   Water has seeped through the roof.

   1 more example

   The water steadily seeped in through the thirl.

2. figurativelyintransitiveTo enter or penetrate slowly; to spread or diffuse.

   Woe seeped through her heart thinking of what had befallen their ethnic group.

   1 more example

   Fear began to seep into the local community over the contamination of their fishpond.

3. figurativelyintransitiveTo diminish or wane away slowly.

   The resistance movement against the invaders had slowly seeped away.

4. transitive(of a crack etc.) To allow a liquid to pass through, to leak.

   The crack is seeping water.

   2 more examples

   If the crack is seeping water, the foam totally stops the leakage.

   2015, Crack repair service, archived from the original on 23 Feb 2020

   Just when I thought I was done checking it over, I smelled coolant....remove the engine cover and bam! 1 inch crack is seeping coolant!

   2009 April 16, Crownvic forums

5. ScotlandTo soak.

   wi' the weet / We're seepit to the skin

   1844, James Lemon, editor, Lays of St. Mungo; Or, The Minstrelsy of the West [quoted in the EDD]

   1 more example

   a young lad's mind, whilk had seeped in, for many a day, the rain of adversity

   1897, W. Beatty, The Secretar: Based on the Story of the Casket Letters [quoted in the EDD], page 108

plural seeps

1. 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.
2. Moisture, liquid, gas, etc. that seeps out; a seepage.
3. The seeping away of a liquid, etc.
4. A seafloor vent.

   1 more example

   Another idea was that filamentous bacteria covering the hairs [of the Yeti crab] would either neutralize gases emitted from the vent or serve the crab directly as a food source. And this last idea received support when a second species of Yeti crab was discovered on cold seeps on the deep-sea floor near Costa Rica.

   2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, page 356