seep
/siːp/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.79 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To ooze or pass slowly through pores or other small openings, and in overly small quantities; said of liquids, etc.
Intransitive verb
verb
To soak.
Example Sentences
- "Water has seeped through the roof."
- "The water steadily seeped in through the thirl."
- "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."
- "The resistance movement against the invaders had slowly seeped away."
- "The crack is seeping water."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *sipen, sipian, *sipōną, *seyb-