leach

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“
Pitts had some skill as a leach, and the medicine-chest was in his care.

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Definitions (28)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. transitive verb To remove soluble or other constituents from by the action of a percolating liquid.
  2. transitive verb To empty; drain: "a world leached of pleasure, voided of meaning” (Marilynne Robinson).
  3. intransitive verb To be dissolved or passed out by a percolating liquid.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (13)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

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Examples (50)

  • Sam is a leach, a hanger on, like K-fed ... livin 'off Brit. —  Top Stories - Google News
  • New Wave also claims that these containers are no-leach, no-chemical and non-toxic, and as far as I can tell, they are infinitely reusable! —  Green Options
  • One of the things that you will know from that time period is when you are joined for heap-leach, you want a red rock.
  • Besides the manufacturing hazards, dioxin and other toxins like DEHP (a plasticizer connected to reproductive illness) outgas, leach, and flake off PVC during its use in your home; when thrown away, these chemicals also leach into groundwater in landfills. —  Worldchanging: Bright Green
  • Pitts had some skill as a leach, and the medicine-chest was in his care. —  Four Young Explorers or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Middle English leche, leachate, from Old English *lece, muddy stream; akin to leccan, to moisten.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. Also leech, letch (and latch): see letch, latch.
  2. from leach, v.
  3. from Middle English leche, from Old French lesche, French lèche, a slice, shive.
  4. from Middle English lechen, leschen, slice; from the noun.
 

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/litʃ/
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