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The Collaborative International Dictionary
To spring a leak

Spring \Spring\ (spr[i^]ng), v. t.

  1. To cause to spring up; to start or rouse, as game; to cause to rise from the earth, or from a covert; as, to spring a pheasant.

  2. To produce or disclose suddenly or unexpectedly; as, to spring a surprise on someone; to spring a joke.

    She starts, and leaves her bed, and springs a light.
    --Dryden.

    The friends to the cause sprang a new project.
    --Swift.

  3. To cause to explode; as, to spring a mine.

  4. To crack or split; to bend or strain so as to weaken; as, to spring a mast or a yard.

  5. To cause to close suddenly, as the parts of a trap operated by a spring; as, to spring a trap.

  6. To bend by force, as something stiff or strong; to force or put by bending, as a beam into its sockets, and allowing it to straighten when in place; -- often with in, out, etc.; as, to spring in a slat or a bar.

  7. To pass over by leaping; as, to spring a fence.

  8. To release (a person) from confinement, especially from a prison. [colloquial]

    To spring a butt (Naut.), to loosen the end of a plank in a ship's bottom.

    To spring a leak (Naut.), to begin to leak.

    To spring an arch (Arch.), to build an arch; -- a common term among masons; as, to spring an arch over a lintel.

    To spring a rattle, to cause a rattle to sound. See Watchman's rattle, under Watchman.

    To spring the luff (Naut.), to ease the helm, and sail nearer to the wind than before; -- said of a vessel.
    --Mar. Dict.

    To spring a mast or To spring a spar (Naut.), to strain it so that it is unserviceable.

To spring a leak

Leak \Leak\ (l[=e]k), n. [Akin to D. lek leaky, a leak, G. leck, Icel. lekr leaky, Dan. l[ae]k leaky, a leak, Sw. l["a]ck; cf. AS. hlec full of cracks or leaky. Cf. Leak, v.]

  1. A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape; as, a leak in a roof; a leak in a boat; a leak in a gas pipe. ``One leak will sink a ship.''
    --Bunyan.

  2. The entrance or escape of a fluid through a crack, fissure, or other aperture; as, the leak gained on the ship's pumps.

  3. (Elec.) A loss of electricity through imperfect insulation; also, the point at which such loss occurs.

  4. an act of urinating; -- used mostly in the phrase

    take a leak, i. e. to urinate. [vulgar]

  5. The disclosure of information that is expected to be kept confidential; as, leaks by the White House staff infuriated Nixon; leaks by the Special Prosecutor were criticized as illegal.

    To spring a leak, to open or crack so as to let in water; to begin to let in water; as, the ship sprung a leak.