Leach
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
leach¹
- /liːt͡ʃ/ UK, US
Sounds like leech · Rhymes with -iːtʃ
Where it comes from
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.
noun leaches
- A quantity of wood ashes, through which water passes, and thus imbibes the alkali.
- 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.
- Alternative spelling of leech.leech
- A jelly-like sweetmeat popular in the fifteenth century.
leach²
- /liːt͡ʃ/ UK, US
Sounds like leech · Rhymes with -iːtʃ
Where it comes from
From Middle English *lechen, *lecchen, from Old English leċċan, from Proto-Germanic *lakjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to leak”).
verb leaches · leaching · leached
- To purge a soluble matter out of something by the action of a percolating fluid. Heavy rainfall can leach out minerals important for plant growth from the soil.
- To part with soluble constituents by percolation. The gangue was leached to recover minerals left behind by the original technology.
- To bleed; to seep. A more generic geography, one where the suburb uneasily abuts the commercial and industrial, or leaches out to a nonurban frontier.
Leach³
- /liːt͡ʃ/
Where it comes from
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).
proper noun Leaches · Latch · Leech · Leetch · Leitch · Litch
- A surname from Old English.
- A census-designated place in Delaware County, Oklahoma, United States.
- An unincorporated community in Carroll County, Tennessee, United States.
- A river in Gloucestershire, with a short stretch in Oxfordshire, England, which joins the Thames at Lechlade; in full, the River Leach.
