leaky

Etymology

It is formed from English leak + -y.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The noun leak is from the verb, or from its cognate in Old Norse,^[7] and the verb is from Middle Dutch leken (“to drip, to leak”) or from Old Norse leka, related to Old English leccan (“to moisten, water”).^[7] Middle English also had an adjective leke (“leaky”), recorded in the Paston letters in 1444, of uncertain origin.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having leaks, letting water or another fluid through a hole or crack: Shakespeare's Tempest (before 1616),^[2][6] although Etymonline dates the word to the mid-15th century^[7] and Merriam-Webster to the 15th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Soon after the literal sense, leaky was used figuratively of people who could not keep a secret: in 1683 the Whores Rhetorick says women are "rather more leaky",^[9] and the OED's first example is from L'Estrange's Fables of 1692.^[2] The sense was listed in the cant and slang dictionaries of the 18th and 19th centuries,^[9] and Merriam-Webster now labels it archaic.^[4] The word was also used of memory that does not retain things (1692), of people who cannot hold their urine (1728) or who weep easily (1905).^[2] In science it is used of a condenser or circuit that slowly loses its charge (1904),^[2] and in genetics of a mutant gene whose protein keeps only part of its normal activity (1955).^[2][4]

Timeline

• before 1616 – having leaks, in Shakespeare.^[2]
• 1683 – unable to keep a secret.^[9]
• 1728 – incontinent of urine.^[2]
• 1904 – of a circuit, slowly losing its charge.^[2]
• 1905 – tearful.^[2]
• 1955 – genetics, of a mutant with reduced protein activity.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having a leak or leaks; letting water, gas or another fluid in or out: a leaky tap.^[4][10][2]
2. (genetics) Of a mutant gene: producing a protein that keeps only part of its normal activity; of such a protein.^[4][2]
3. (archaic) Unable to keep a secret; given to blabbing.^[4][2][9]

Word family

• leakily
• leakiness
• unleaky

Related words

• leak
• leakage

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
9. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins