Adjective: leaky
Comparison Forms
Synthetic
| Comparative | leakier |
| Superlative | leakiest |
Perifrastic
Sample Sentences
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The leaky bucket dripped only one drop at a time, but by the time I got back to the house it was half empty.
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The ceiling was so leaky that someone had to fix it.
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Nuclear reactors in Russian submarines are said to be so leaky that crews are often paid "sterility money". [1983, Michael Stephenson, Roger Hearn, The Nuclear Case Book:]
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The spooks' argument against this is that the secret service would become leaky and demoralised […] [1986, The Spectator, volume 257, numbers 8252-8268, page 6:]
Adjectives inflected like leaky
syrupy,
seemly,
seggsy,
snuffy,
snippy,
snitty,
sniffy,
snotty,
snouty,
snobby,
snoozy,
snooty,
snazzy,
snappy,
snarky,
snarly,
snassy,
snaily,
snacky,
snaggy, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)
Etymology
Likely a normalisation ( + -y) of earlier leak, leake, leke (“leaky”, adjective), from Middle English leke (“leaky”), from Old English hlec, *lec (“having cracks or rents; leaky”), from Proto-Germanic *lekaz (“leaking; leaky”). By surface analysis, leak + -y. Cognate with Scots lek, leck (“leaky”), Saterland Frisian läk (“leaky”), Dutch lek (“leaky”), German Low German leck (“leaky”), German leck (“leaky”), Swedish läck (“leaky”), Icelandic lekur (“leaky”). See: Dutch Adjectives '
lek', German Adjectives '
leck'.