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Leak vs Prick - What's the difference?

leak | prick |

In obsolete terms the difference between leak and prick

is that leak is leaky while prick is to dress; to prink; usually with up.

As an adjective leak

is leaky.

leak

English

Noun

(leak) (en noun)
  • A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.
    • a leak in a roof
    a leak in a boat
    a leak in a gas pipe
  • The entrance or escape of a fluid through a crack, fissure, or other aperture.
    • The leak gained on the ship's pumps.
  • A divulgation, or disclosure, of information held secret until then.
    • The leaks by Chelsea Manning showed the secrets of the US military.
  • The person through whom such divulgation, or disclosure, occurred.
    • The press must have learned about the plan through a leak .
  • (computing) The gradual loss of a system resource caused by failure to deallocate previously reserved portions.
    • resource leak
    memory leak
  • An act of urination.
    • I have to take a leak .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To allow fluid to escape or enter something that should be sealed.
    • The faucet has been leaking since last month.
  • To reveal secret information.
    • ''Someone must have leaked it to our competitors that the new product will be out soon.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) Leaky.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , VI.8:
    • Yet is the bottle leake , and bag so torne, / That all which I put in fals out anon […].

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    prick

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) prik, prikke, from (etyl) prica, . Pejorative context came from prickers, or witch-hunters.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A small hole or perforation, caused by piercing.
  • An indentation or small mark made with a pointed object.
  • (obsolete) A dot or other diacritical mark used in writing; a point.
  • (obsolete) A tiny particle; a small amount of something; a jot.
  • A small pointed object.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Pins, wooden pricks , nails, sprigs of rosemary.
  • * Bible, Acts ix. 5
    • It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks .
  • The experience or feeling of being pierced or punctured by a small, sharp object.
    • I felt a sharp prick as the nurse took a sample of blood.
  • * A. Tucker
    • the pricks of conscience
  • (slang, vulgar) The penis.
  • (slang, pejorative) Someone (especially a man or boy) who is unpleasant, rude or annoying.
  • (now, historical) A small roll of yarn or tobacco.
  • The footprint of a hare.
  • (obsolete) A point or mark on the dial, noting the hour.
  • * Shakespeare
    • the prick of noon
  • (obsolete) The point on a target at which an archer aims; the mark; the pin.
  • * Spenser
    • they that shooten nearest the prick
    Derived terms
    * pricker * prickle * prickly * pricktease * prickteaser

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To pierce or puncture slightly.
    • John hardly felt the needle prick his arm when the adept nurse drew blood.
  • To form by piercing or puncturing.
    • to prick holes in paper
    to prick a pattern for embroidery
    to prick the notes of a musical composition
    (Cowper)
  • (dated) To be punctured; to suffer or feel a sharp pain, as by puncture.
    • A sore finger pricks .
  • To incite, stimulate, goad.
  • * (rfdate), (Shakespeare), (Two Gentlemen of Verona) , ii. 7.
    • My duty pricks me on to utter that.
  • To affect with sharp pain; to sting, as with remorse.
  • * Bible, Acts ii. 37
    • Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.
  • * Tennyson
    • I was pricked with some reproof.
  • (archaic) To urge one's horse on; to ride quickly.
    • (Milton)
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , III.1:
    • At last, as through an open plaine they yode, / They spide a knight that towards them pricked fayre [...].
  • * 1881 , :
    • Indeed, it is a memorable subject for consideration, with what unconcern and gaiety mankind pricks on along the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
  • (transitive, chiefly, nautical) To mark the surface of (something) with pricks or dots; especially, to trace a ship’s course on (a chart).
  • (nautical, obsolete) To run a middle seam through the cloth of a sail. (The Universal Dictionary of the English Language, 1896)
  • To make acidic or pungent.
    • (Hudibras)
  • To become sharp or acid; to turn sour, as wine.
  • To aim at a point or mark.
    • (Hawkins)
  • To fix by the point; to attach or hang by puncturing.
    • to prick a knife into a board
  • * Sandys
    • The cooks prick it [a slice] on a prong of iron.
    (Isaac Newton)
  • (obsolete) To mark or denote by a puncture; to designate by pricking; to choose; to mark.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • Some who are pricked for sheriffs.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • Let the soldiers for duty be carefully pricked off.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Those many, then, shall die: their names are pricked .
  • To make sharp; to erect into a point; to raise, as something pointed; said especially of the ears of an animal, such as a horse or dog; and usually followed by up .
  • * Dryden
    • The courser pricks up his ears.
  • (obsolete) To dress; to prink; usually with up .
  • (farriery) To drive a nail into (a horse's foot), so as to cause lameness.
    • (Webster 1913)