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Leach
Definitions
- 1 A surname from Old English. countable, uncountable
- 2 A census-designated place in Delaware County, Oklahoma, United States. countable, uncountable
- 3 An unincorporated community in Carroll County, Tennessee, United States. countable, uncountable
- 4 A river in Gloucestershire, with a short stretch in Oxfordshire, England, which joins the Thames at Lechlade; in full, the River Leach. countable, uncountable
- 1 A quantity of wood ashes, through which water passes, and thus imbibes the alkali.
- 2 the process of leaching wordnet
- 3 A tub or vat for leaching ashes, bark, etc.
""This is the leach," said Kitty, pointing to a large, yellowish, upright wooden cylinder, which rested on some slanting boards, down the surface of which ran a brownish liquid that dripped into a trough."
- 4 Alternative spelling of leech. alt-of, alternative
- 5 A jelly-like sweetmeat popular in the fifteenth century.
- 1 To purge a soluble matter out of something by the action of a percolating fluid. transitive
"Heavy rainfall can leach out minerals important for plant growth from the soil."
- 2 remove substances from by a percolating liquid wordnet
- 3 To part with soluble constituents by percolation. intransitive
"The gangue was leached to recover minerals left behind by the original technology."
- 4 permeate or penetrate gradually wordnet
- 5 To bleed; to seep. figuratively, intransitive
"A more generic geography, one where the suburb uneasily abuts the commercial and industrial, or leaches out to a nonurban frontier."
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- 6 cause (a liquid) to leach or percolate wordnet
Etymology
From Middle English leche (“leachate; sluggish stream”), from Old English *lǣċ, *lǣċe (“muddy stream”), from Proto-Germanic *lēkijō (“a leak, drain, flow”) (compare Proto-Germanic *lekaną (“to leak, drain”)), from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to leak”). Cognate with Old English leċċan (“to water, moisten”), Old English lacu (“stream, pool, pond”). More at leak, lake.
From Middle English *lechen, *lecchen, from Old English leċċan, from Proto-Germanic *lakjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to leak”).
Two main origins: * Occupational surname for a physician, from Old English lǣċe (“doctor, physician”). * Topographic surname for someone who lived by a boggy stream, from Old English læcc (“boggy stream”) (related to Proto-Germanic *lekaną), or from several English placenames related to this (compare Leake).
See also for "leach"
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