seep

Meanings

1. To ooze or pass slowly through pores or other small openings, and in overly small quantities; said of liquids, etc.
2. To enter or penetrate slowly; to spread or diffuse.
3. To diminish or wane away slowly.
4. (of a crack etc.) To allow a liquid to pass through, to leak.
5. To soak.

1. A small spring, pool, or other spot where liquid from the ground (e.g. water, petroleum or tar) has oozed to the surface; a place of seeping.
2. Moisture, liquid, gas, etc. that seeps out; a seepage.
3. The seeping away of a liquid, etc.
4. A seafloor vent.

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.