seep

Meaning

Verb

1. (intransitive) To ooze or pass slowly through pores or other small openings, and in overly small quantities; said of liquids, etc.
2. (figuratively, intransitive) To enter or penetrate slowly; to spread or diffuse.
3. (figuratively, intransitive) To diminish or wane away slowly.
4. (transitive) (of a crack etc.) To allow a liquid to pass through, to leak.
5. (Scotland) To soak.

Noun

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.

Synonyms

ooze

leak

filter

exude

trickle

dribble

drip

permeate

penetrate

soak in

appear

come

spill

leach

infiltrate

exudate

osmose

escape

percolate

drop

port wine

run

seepage

soak

soak through

seepage site

sweat

😓

burst

trill

ooze out

seep out

bilge

dip in

soak into

water

🚰

drip into

seep site

irrigate

Translations

suinter

sickern

στάζω

διαρρέω

tropfen

sızmak

rezumar

escoar

s’infiltrer

versickern

filtrare

filtrar

rezumarse

διαποτίζω

rajar

Pronounced as (IPA)

/siːp/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: *sipen

Inherited from Old English: sipian

Cognate with Middle Dutch: sīpen

Cognate with German: seifen

Cognate with Latin: sēbum

Cognate with Ancient Greek: εἴβω

In summary

Variant of sipe, from Middle English *sipen, from Old English sipian, from Proto-Germanic *sipōną, derivative of *sīpaną, from Proto-Indo-European *seyb-, *sib- (“to pour out, drip, trickle”).
See also Middle Dutch sīpen (“to drip”), German Low German siepern (“to seep”), archaic German seifen (“to trickle blood”); also Latin sēbum (“suet, tallow”), Ancient Greek εἴβω (eíbō, “to drop, drip”)). See soap.