ooze

• enPR: o͞oz, IPA^(key): /uːz/

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• 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 wose (wose, “sap”); see above.

ooze (countable and uncountable, plural oozes)

1. An aqueous extract of vegetable matter used for leather tanning.
2. Secretion, humour.
3. A thick often unpleasant liquid; muck.
4. 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 3, chapter

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

5. A gentle flowing or seepage, as of water through sand or earth.

ooze (third-person singular simple present oozes, present participle oozing, simple past and past participle oozed)

1. (intransitive) To be secreted or slowly leak.
   • 1988, David Drake, The Sea Hag, Baen Publishing Enterprises (2003), →ISBN, unnumbered page:

     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, Vintage Books (1995), →ISBN, unnumbered page:

     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 (2011), →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, Open Road Integrated Media (2011), →ISBN, unnumbered page:

     "Good servants are so hard to find," Chesna said, oozing arrogance.

   • 1999, Tamsin Blanchard, Antonio Berardi: Sex and Sensibility, Watson-Guptill Publications (1999), →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:

     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.

• oozy

Middle English wose, from Old English wāse 'mud, mire', from Proto-Germanic *waisǭ (compare Dutch waas 'turf, sod', German Wasen, Old Norse veisa 'slime, stagnant pool'), from Proto-Indo-European *weis- 'to flow' (compare Sanskrit विष्यति (viṣyati, “flow, let loose”). More at virus.

ooze (plural oozes)

1. Soft mud, slime, or shells on the bottom of a body of water.
   • Shakespeare

     [...] my son i' th' ooze is bedded.

2. A piece of soft, wet, pliable turf.
3. The liquor of a tanning vat.