Definition

1. Noun:

   • A slow flow or leakage: The process of a liquid or viscous substance seeping out gradually.
   • Soft mud or slime: A thick, wet, soft deposit, typically found at the bottom of a river, lake, or sea.

2. Verb:

   • To flow or leak out slowly: To pass or seep gradually through small openings.
   • To exude or give off: To release a liquid, quality, or feeling slowly and steadily.

Examples

• Noun:

  • The constant ooze of sap from the tree trunk attracted insects.
  • We walked carefully through the thick ooze at the river's edge.

• Verb:

  • Blood began to ooze from the cut.
  • Her confidence seemed to ooze from every pore.

Advanced Usage

• "to ooze with something": To be full of and abundantly display a particular quality.
  • The luxurious hotel oozes with old-world charm.
• "to ooze away": To diminish or disappear gradually.
  • His enthusiasm for the project began to ooze away after months of setbacks.

Variants and Related Words

• Oozy (adj): Resembling or covered in ooze; soft and wet.
  • The oozy ground made walking difficult.
• Oozing (n/adj): The act or process of oozing; something that oozes.
  • The oozing of the wound required a bandage.

Synonyms

• Verb: Seep, leak, exude, drip, percolate, trickle.
• Noun: Sludge, mire, muck, seepage.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Ooze out: To escape or become known gradually.
  • The details of the scandal slowly oozed out over several weeks.

Related Idioms

• To ooze confidence/charm: To display an abundance of a quality in a very apparent way.
  • The lead actor just oozes confidence on stage.

Noun

1. the process of seeping
2. any thick, viscous matter

Verb

1. release (a liquid) in drops or small quantities
   • exude sweat through the pores
2. pass gradually or leak through or as if through small openings