ooze

• enPR: o͞oz, IPA^(key): /uːz/

  • Audio (US):

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  • Audio (General Australian):

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• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /ʉːz/
• Rhymes: -uːz
• Homophone: oohs

• (Noun) Middle English wose (“sap”), from Old English wōs (“sap, froth”), from Proto-Germanic *wōsą (cf. Middle Low German wose (“scum”), Old High German wasal (“rain”), Old Swedish os, oos), from Proto-Indo-European *wóseh₂ (“sap”) (cf. Sanskrit वसा (vásā, “fat”)).
• (Verb) Middle English wosen, from Old English wōsan; see above.

• owze (obsolete)

• ouse (dated)

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.

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.

   • 1988, David Drake, The Sea Hag‎^[1], 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^[2], 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.
   • 1989, Robert R. McCammon, The Wolf's Hour‎^[3], 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^[4]:

     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.

From Middle English wose, from Old English wāse (“mud, mire”), from Proto-West Germanic [Term?], 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”)). More at virus.

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.

2. (oceanography) A pelagic marine sediment containing a significant amount of the microscopic remains of either calcareous or siliceous planktonic debris organisms.
   • 1826, [Mary Shelley], The Last Man. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

     Seaweed were left on the blackened marble, while the salt ooze defaced the matchless works of art.

3. A piece of soft, wet, pliable ground.