LEACH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does leach mean? 

• LEACH (noun)
  The noun LEACH has 1 sense:

1. the process of leaching

  Familiarity information: LEACH used as a noun is very rare.

• LEACH (verb)
  The verb LEACH has 3 senses:

1. cause (a liquid) to leach or percolate

2. permeate or penetrate gradually

3. remove substances from by a percolating liquid

  Familiarity information: LEACH used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LEACH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The process of leaching

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

leach; leaching

Hypernyms ("leach" is a kind of...):

action; activity; natural action; natural process (a process existing in or produced by nature (rather than by the intent of human beings))

Derivation:

leach (remove substances from by a percolating liquid)

leach (permeate or penetrate gradually)

leach (cause (a liquid) to leach or percolate)

• LEACH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they leach    ... he / she / it leaches   
Past simple: leached   
Past participle: leached   
-ing form: leaching   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause (a liquid) to leach or percolate

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "leach" is one way to...):

remove; take; take away; withdraw (remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something abstract)

Cause:

leach; percolate (permeate or penetrate gradually)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

leach (the process of leaching)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Permeate or penetrate gradually

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

leach; percolate

Context example:

the fertilizer leached into the ground

Hypernyms (to "leach" is one way to...):

dribble; filter; trickle (run or flow slowly, as in drops or in an unsteady stream)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Derivation:

leach (the process of leaching)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Remove substances from by a percolating liquid

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

leach; strip

Context example:

leach the soil

Hypernyms (to "leach" is one way to...):

remove; take; take away; withdraw (remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something abstract)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

leach (the process of leaching)

 Context examples 

Leach had evidently done his task with a thoroughness that Mugridge had not forgiven, for words followed and evil names involving smirched ancestries.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Magnesium sulfate would simply have leached into the ocean from rocks on the ocean floor, but sodium chloride may indicate the ocean floor is hydrothermally active.

(Table Salt Compound Spotted on Europa, NASA)

Too much nitrogen can run off with rainwater or leach through to soil and contaminate groundwater.

(New Test Can Determine Nitrogen Levels in Soil, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

Increased copper in the water can be a result of agricultural runoff or marine paint leaching from boat hulls.

(Sea fan corals face new threat in warming ocean: copper, National Science Foundation)

Released from deeper soil horizons and leached by rain into waterways, the older, chemically unstable organic carbon is eventually consumed by stream-dwelling microbes, which devour the rich compounds and respire carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

(Tropical soil disturbance could be hidden source of carbon dioxide, National Science Foundation)

Twenty years ago, researchers from Washington State University made the accidental discovery that the now infamous plastics ingredient known as bisphenol A or BPA had inadvertently leached out of plastic cages used to house female mice in the lab, causing a sudden increase in chromosomally abnormal eggs in the animals.

(Reproductive Problems Reported In Lab Mice after BPA Replacements in Plastics, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Leach was the last to go, falling sheer back from the top of the scuttle and striking on head and shoulders upon his sprawling mates beneath.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

In an investigation of 19 sites in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, scientists discovered that heavily deforested areas leach organic carbon that is significantly older and more biodegradable than the organic carbon leached from densely forested regions.

(Tropical soil disturbance could be hidden source of carbon dioxide, National Science Foundation)

Leach stood their fears and reproaches for some time.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Leach never changed his position on the edge of the bunk.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)