leach
verb
- dissolve out soluble constitents from by percolation
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L323140 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /liːt͡ʃ/
name
Etymology: Two main origins: * Occupational surname for a physician, from Old English lǣċe (“doctor, physician”). * Topographic surname for someone who lived by a boggy stream, from Old English læcc (“boggy stream”) (related to Proto-Germanic *lekaną), or from several English placenames related to this (compare Leake).
- A surname from Old English.
- A census-designated place in Delaware County, Oklahoma, United States.
- An unincorporated community in Carroll County, Tennessee, United States.
- A river in Gloucestershire, with a short stretch in Oxfordshire, England, which joins the Thames at Lechlade; in full, the River Leach.
noun
Etymology: From Middle English leche (“leachate; sluggish stream”), from Old English *lǣċ, *lǣċe (“muddy stream”), from Proto-Germanic *lēkijō (“a leak, drain, flow”) (compare Proto-Germanic *lekaną (“to leak, drain”)), from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to leak”). Cognate with Old English leċċan (“to water, moisten”), Old English lacu (“stream, pool, pond”). More at leak, lake.
- A quantity of wood ashes, through which water passes, and thus imbibes the alkali.
- 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.”
- Alternative spelling of leech.
- A jelly-like sweetmeat popular in the fifteenth century.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English *lechen, *lecchen, from Old English leċċan, from Proto-Germanic *lakjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to leak”).
- To 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.”
“[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.”
- To part with soluble constituents by percolation.
“The gangue was leached to recover minerals left behind by the original technology.”
- To bleed; to seep.
“A more generic geography, one where the suburb uneasily abuts the commercial and industrial, or leaches out to a nonurban frontier.”
“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—”