leach

Meaning

Noun

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

Verb

1. To purge a soluble matter out of something by the action of a percolating fluid.
2. To part with soluble constituents by percolation.
3. To bleed; to seep.

Synonyms

filter

percolate

wash

🧽

strip

leaching

lixiviate

flush

filtrate

strain

husk

infiltrate

lixiviation

lye

ooze

osmose

pare

peel

peel off

penetrate

percolation

permeate

pod

pour

seep

shave

shell

🐚

shuck

skim

skin

sluice

steep

flush down

wash down

wring

rush down

skim off

leachable

leachine

gush down

sluice down

bloodsucker

washine out

decorticate

drain

drip

exfoliate

extract

extraction

filtration

hull

Pronounced as (IPA)

/liːt͡ʃ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: leche

Inherited from Old English: *lǣċ

Cognate with Old English: leċċan

Cognate with Old English: lacu

Inherited from Middle English: *lechen

Inherited from Old English: leċċan

In summary

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.