Word
seep
US/ˈsip/
UK/sˈiːp/
Definitions
03to gradually disappear
v. to slowly go away or decrease.
v. to diminish, wane, or drain away slowly and almost imperceptibly.
“As the sun went down, the warmth seeped away from the desert air.”
“He felt his confidence seep away as the interviewer continued to ask increasingly technical questions he could not answer.”
Literary
04a place where liquid leaks
n. a small spot where water or oil comes out of the ground slowly.
n. a spot where liquid, such as water or petroleum, oozes to the surface from underground.
“Geologists discovered a natural oil seep near the edge of the cliff.”
“The deep-sea expedition identified several methane seeps on the ocean floor that supported a unique ecosystem of organisms.”
Technical
Etymology
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.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Related words
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/seep