seep

American  

[seep] / sip /

verb (used without object)

1. to pass, flow, or ooze gradually through a porous substance.

   Water seeps through cracks in the wall.

2. (of ideas, methods, etc.) to enter or be introduced at a slow pace.

   The new ideas finally seeped down to the lower echelons.

3. to become diffused; permeate.

   Fog seeped through the trees, obliterating everything.

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verb (used with object)

1. to cause to seep; filter.

   The vodka is seeped through charcoal to purify it.

noun

1. moisture that seeps out; seepage.

2. a small spring, pool, or other place where liquid from the ground has oozed to the surface of the earth.

seep British  

/ siːp /

verb

1. (intr) to pass gradually or leak through or as if through small openings; ooze

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noun

1. a small spring or place where water, oil, etc, has oozed through the ground

2. another word for seepage

Etymology

Origin of seep

1780–90; perhaps variant of dial. sipe, itself perhaps continuing Old English sīpian (cognate with Middle Low German sīpen )

Explanation

Seep means to leak slowly. When you see the word, imagine water coming in through your sneakers on a rainy day. It's not a lot of water, but your feet still get pretty wet. The word seep is related to the Dutch word for ooze. Oil seeps from the earth and blood seeps from a wound. Seep falls somewhere between gush and drip on a scale of how liquid flows and suggests a liquid that is thick, and unwanted. In the figurative sense, some things that seep, like bad thoughts that seep into your mind, are also unwanted. But sometimes you wish that the flow would increase like when financial aid only seeps into a disaster zone.

Example Sentences

“Higher energy prices are pushing inflation higher and some of that will seep through to core inflation in the coming months,” Pearce writes.

From Barron's • Apr. 16, 2026

A place for the pork juices to settle, for the butter from the raisins to seep into, for the yogurt to drag through in soft, tangy streaks.

From Salon • Apr. 10, 2026

Five weeks seems like long enough for estimates of the damage from an energy shock to seep into analysts’ forecasts, but that isn’t how it works.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 7, 2026

Rising costs for fertilizer, feed, packaging and shipping are going to seep into the prices that people see on grocery shelves, experts say.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 21, 2026

The orange peels would smolder in there, and the men would hunker down around the cans and watch the smoke seep out the holes.

From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston

Related Words

• bleed
• drain
• flow
• ooze
• percolate
• permeate
• soak
• trickle