seep

1 of 2

verb

seeped; seeping; seeps

intransitive verb

1
: to flow or pass slowly through fine pores or small openings : ooze
water seeped in through a crack
2
a
: to enter or penetrate slowly
fear of nuclear war had seeped into the national consciousnessTip O'Neill
b
: to become diffused or spread
a sadness seeped through his beingAgnes S. Turnbull

seep

2 of 2

noun

1
a
: a spot where a fluid (such as water, oil, or gas) contained in the ground oozes slowly to the surface and often forms a pool
b
: a small spring
2
seepy adjective

Examples of seep in a Sentence

Verb Blood was seeping through the bandage. The chemicals seeped into the ground.
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
The older man, blood seeping through his white T-shirt, pulls a gun from his coat and confronts both the younger man and the woman, who have moved to the far end of the subway car. Hurubie Meko, New York Times, 15 Mar. 2024 But smoke seeps in — through electrical sockets, air conditioning systems, crevices between floorboards and gaps in insulation. Danny Nguyen, Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2024 Sewage seeps into Imperial Beach, a California beach city, through Mexico's Tijuana River causing beach closures and upending residents' lives. Lauren Fichten, CBS News, 15 Mar. 2024 And tons of coal are still sitting there seeping into the groundwater and into the river. Troy Aidan Sambajon, The Christian Science Monitor, 11 Mar. 2024 The microbes then form the base of the food web in hydrothermal vents and methane seeps, sustaining bigger creatures, including crabs, mussels, and soft-bodied polychaete worms like Pectinereis strickrotti. Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 6 Mar. 2024 Nearly 15 years after the paper named its first Restaurant of the Year, the hospitality industry swelled, with restaurants of various cuisines opening in the city and eventually, spilling beyond downtown Detroit, seeping into surrounding neighborhoods. Detroit Free Press, 5 Mar. 2024 Those with relatively low counts—and the animals—likely consumed it accidently as cinnabar seeped into the soils and environment. Bridget Alex, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Mar. 2024 The Emory oaks that had been drying out as Resolution dewaters the underground shafts were reviving, their leaves fleshing out and appearing healthier as water seeped into the ground. The Arizona Republic, 29 Feb. 2024
Noun
The location of the seep is not far from the site of a large spill in 2021 that occurred when a ship’s anchor punctured an underwater oil pipeline in San Pedro Bay, sending 25,000 gallons of crude gushing into the waters off Huntington Beach. Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times, 11 Mar. 2024 It was found about 30 miles off of Costa Rica’s Pacific coast in an underwater methane seep. Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 6 Mar. 2024 Resolution is also working to preserve and nurture other plants culturally important to tribes as well as caring for seeps, springs and waterways on properties the mine owns as wall as preserving ancestral sites. The Arizona Republic, 29 Feb. 2024 The piece of skin is one of countless traces of prehistoric life preserved in the Richards Spur limestone cave system near an oil seep in southwestern Oklahoma. Kate Golembiewski, New York Times, 11 Jan. 2024 The seep under my feet runs into Meadow Branch, which spills into the creek a couple of stone’s throws to the northwest. T. Edward Nickens, Field & Stream, 4 Jan. 2024 If the acidic water from a seep reaches an alkaline river or stream, its pH will rise, and the iron will fall out as what miners would call yellow boy. Alec Luhn, Scientific American, 19 Dec. 2023 Today, a tall fence runs around the seeps, but archaeologists have carried out more than 100 excavations of them since the early 1900s. Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 3 Aug. 2023 During these dives, Hoy said the team plans to investigate some of the area’s cold seep communities — places where gases from under the sea floor rise through cracks and where plants don’t rely on photosynthesis for food production. Joshua A. Bickel, Anchorage Daily News, 14 Aug. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'seep.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb

alteration of earlier sipe, from Middle English sipen, from Old English sipian; akin to Middle Low German sipen to seep

First Known Use

Verb

1790, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

1824, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of seep was in 1790

Dictionary Entries Near seep

Cite this Entry

“Seep.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/seep. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

seep

verb
ˈsēp
: to flow or pass slowly through small openings : ooze

More from Merriam-Webster on seep

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