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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

seep.

To ooze or pass slowly through pores or other small openings, and in overly small quantities; said of liquids, etc.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/siːp/
  1. To ooze or pass slowly through pores or other small openings, and in overly small quantities; said of liquids, etc.

    intransitive
    Water has seeped through the roof.
    The water steadily seeped in through the thirl.
  2. To enter or penetrate slowly; to spread or diffuse.

    figuratively · intransitive
    Woe seeped through her heart thinking of what had befallen their ethnic group.
    Fear began to seep into the local community over the contamination of their fishpond.
  3. To diminish or wane away slowly.

    figuratively · intransitive
    The resistance movement against the invaders had slowly seeped away.
  4. (of a crack etc.) To allow a liquid to pass through, to leak.

    transitive
    The crack is seeping water.
  5. To soak.

    Scotland
Where this word comes from

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.

noun/siːp/
  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.

Where this word comes from

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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.