leaky
adj.adj. having a hole or crack that lets liquid or gas escape when it should stay inside. You use this to describe things like pipes, roofs, or even pens that make a mess.
adj. permitting the accidental or unintended escape of a fluid, gas, or data through a hole or structural weakness. Often used figuratively in computing or finance to describe systems that lose information or capital.
The kitchen has a leaky faucet that drips all night.
We had to place a bucket under the leaky ceiling during the heavy rainstorm to protect the wooden floor.
The investigation revealed that the company's leaky internal servers had been exposing sensitive customer data for months before the security breach was finally detected and patched.
Likely a normalisation ( + -y) of earlier leak, leake, leke (“leaky”, adjective), from Middle English leke (“leaky”), from Old English hlec, lec (“having cracks or rents; leaky”), from Proto-Germanic lekaz (“leaking; leaky”). By surface analysis, leak + -y. Cognate with Scots lek, leck (“leaky”), Saterland Frisian läk (“leaky”), Dutch lek (“leaky”), German Low German leck (“leaky”), German leck (“leaky”), Swedish läck (“leaky”), Icelandic lekur (“leaky”).
Typically used as an attributive adjective before a noun or predicatively after a linking verb like 'is' or 'became'.