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ooze

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Ooze

English

WOTD – 10 November 2012

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Alternative forms

Noun

ooze (countable and uncountable, plural oozes)

  1. Tanning liquor, an aqueous extract of vegetable matter (tanbark, sumac, etc.) in a tanning vat used to tan leather.
  2. An oozing, gentle flowing, or seepage, as of water through sand or earth.
  3. (obsolete) Secretion, humour.
  4. (obsolete) Juice, sap.
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

ooze (third-person singular simple present oozes, present participle oozing, simple past and past participle oozed)

  1. (intransitive, sometimes figurative) To be secreted or slowly leak.
    • 1868, Charlotte Riddell, A Strange Christmas Game:
      I promised him I would keep silence, but the story gradually oozed out, and the Cronsons left the country.
    • 1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:
      She picked up the limp sprout and squeezed her thumb up its tiny stalk. Microscopic grains oozed out. “Why, one sprig of nut grass can ruin a whole yard. Look here. When it comes fall this dries up and the wind blows it all over Maycomb County!” Miss Maudie’s face likened such an occurrence unto an Old Testament pestilence.
    • 1988, David Drake, The Sea Hag‎, Baen Publishing Enterprises, published 2003, →ISBN:
      Pale slime oozed through all the surfaces; some of it dripped from the ceiling and burned Dennis as badly as the blazing sparks had done a moment before.
    • 1994, Madeleine May Kunin, Living a Political Life‎, Vintage Books, published 1995, →ISBN:
      He was hard to understand because he spoke softly, and his Vermont accent was as thick as maple syrup oozing down a pile of pancakes.
    • 2011, Karen Mahoney, The Iron Witch, Flux, →ISBN, page 278:
      Her heart constricted when she saw thick blood oozing from a wide gash in his forehead.
  2. (transitive, figuratively) To give off a strong sense of (something); to exude.
    • 1878, Henry James, “Honoré de Balzac”, in French Poets and Novelists‎, London: Macmillan, II, p. 122:
      […] this room, where misfortune seems to ooze, where speculation lurks in corners, and of which Madame Vauquer inhales the warm, fetid air without being nauseated.
    • 1989, Robert R. McCammon, The Wolf's Hour‎, Open Road Integrated Media, published 2011, →ISBN:
      "Good servants are so hard to find," Chesna said, oozing arrogance.
    • 1999, Tamsin Blanchard, Antonio Berardi: Sex and Sensibility, Watson-Guptill Publications, →ISBN, page 16:
      There are no two ways about it: a Berardi dress oozes sex appeal from its very seams.
    • 2012 April 21, Jonathan Jurejko, “Newcastle 3-0 Stoke”, in BBC Sport‎:
      Newcastle had failed to penetrate a typically organised Stoke backline in the opening stages but, once Cabaye and then Cisse breached their defence, Newcastle oozed confidence and controlled the game with a swagger expected of a top-four team.
    • 2025 November 12, 'Mystery Shopper', “Is Devon the cream of the crop?”, in RAIL, number 1048, page 48:
      Many of the stations, some of which are request stops, still have their original LSWR buildings. All are now private homes, but it oozes nostalgia (which I like).
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2

From Middle English wose, from Old English wāse (“mud, mire”), from Proto-West Germanic *waisā, from Proto-Germanic *waisǭ (compare Dutch waas (“haze, mist; bloom”), (obsolete) German Wasen (“turf, sod”), Old Norse veisa (“slime, stagnant pool”)), from Proto-Indo-European *weys- (“to flow”) (compare Sanskrit विष्यति (viṣyati, “flow, let loose”)). Compare also Saterland Frisian öäzje (“to smear”). More at virus.

Noun

ooze (countable and uncountable, plural oozes)

  1. Soft mud, slime, or shells especially in the bed of a river or estuary.
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
      my son i' th' ooze is bedded.
    • 1993, TC Boyle, The Road to Wellville, Penguin, published 1994, page 297:
      It was May before the skunk cabbage began to push up through the ooze of the swamps, before the rhubarb reddened to the back corner of the garden and the spring peepers finally emerged and began abrading the edges of the night with their lovesick vibrato.
  2. (oceanography) A pelagic marine sediment containing a significant amount of the microscopic remains of either calcareous or siliceous planktonic debris organisms.
  3. A piece of soft, wet, pliable ground.
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