Showing posts with label leek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leek. Show all posts

Monday, March 12, 2012

leak, leek

Leak or leak means the water or other substance that comes through a hole or crack, when you don't want it to--
The bathroom faucet has a leak. Call the plumber.
The boat sprang a leak and they nearly drowned.
Leak is also a verb ( action word ), meaning to spill out water or some other substance--
The radiator leaks. Take a jug of water with you.
The roof  leaks. Put a bucket under it until we can get it repaired.
News and information can also leak--
He was suspected of being the source of the news leak.
The reporter wouldn't tell the court how the information leaked out.

Leek or leek ( rhymes with leak ) means a vegetable, something like an enormous green onion--
She always chopped up a leek and put it in the chicken soup.
The recipe calls for a leek. Do we have one?

Now that you know that, you can say--
"I put the leek in a bowl of water, but the bowl had a leak and the floor is wet."

Note--"leaky" means having holes through which something can spill out, or in--
"We need a new tent. The old one is leaky."
"Leekie" is a Scotch word for "leek", as in "cock-a-leekie" soup--
He couldn't wait to get home, so he could enjoy a bowl of his grandmother's cock-a-leekie soup.