seep
v.v. to slowly move through a small opening or into a small space. You use this when something like water, light, or even a feeling spreads gradually.
v. to move slowly and steadily through a porous medium or into a small opening. Often describes the gradual spread of a substance or an abstract quality like light or emotion.
Sunlight begins to seep through the curtains in the morning.
Water started to seep into the basement after the heavy rain caused the ground to become saturated.
The scent of the fresh coffee began to seep through the apartment, waking the neighbors who had been sleeping through the early morning hours.
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.