leach
v.v. to wash out or carry away chemicals or minerals from a solid material, like soil, using a liquid. This often happens when rainwater moves through the ground.
v. to drain away from a substance by the action of a percolating liquid. Often describes the process where soluble nutrients or pollutants are removed from soil or waste by rainwater.
Heavy rains cause chemicals to leach into the river.
If the landfill is not properly sealed, toxic substances may leach into the local groundwater and contaminate the drinking supply.
Over centuries, water moving through the limestone began to leach the minerals from the rock, eventually creating the vast network of underground caverns seen today.
The verb can be used both transitively and intransitively.
The chemicals leached the soil.The chemicals leached from the soil.When the substance is leaving a material, use 'from'; 'leach the soil' implies the soil itself is being washed away rather than the chemicals within it.