Oozes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Moves or flows out gradually in a slow, steady stream like a thick liquid ; strongly displays or emits a particular quality or emotion
2. Leaks or seeps out gently and continuously, often through small openings ; gives off or radiates a noticeable attitude or character
3. Trickles or drips slowly like sap or thick fluid ; shows or projects a marked or abundant presence of a trait or impression

Etymology: The verb "oozes" is simply the third-person singular present of "ooze," and the verb's roots run back to a word for sap. In Old English, "wōs" meant sap or froth, and the Middle English verb "wosen" grew from it, so the earliest sense was closer to something seeping out of a plant or tree than to mud. The noun's ancestry reaches back to a Proto-Indo-European root for sap, which also gave Sanskrit "vasā," meaning fat. Yet the modern spelling owes much to a second, separate source. A noun "wose" was also used in Middle English for mud or mire, from Old English "wāse," and the two words blended in form and sense. Their shared idea is of something thick and slow-moving, whether liquid sap or muddy slime. Ancient Greek or Latin speakers had no hand in it; both strands are Germanic, descended from the same sort of old root meaning "to flow."

Synonyms: leaks, exudes, trickles, seep, drips

Antonyms: gushes, pours, spills, rushes, floods