leach/leech

leach (lēch)

Verb. Transitive

• To remove soluble or other constituents from by the action of a percolating liquid.
• To empty; drain:

Verb. Intransitive

• To be dissolved or passed out by a percolating liquid.

Noun

• The act or process of leaching.
• A porous, perforated, or sieve like vessel that holds material to be leached.
• The substance through which a liquid is leached.

leech (lēch)

Noun

• Any of various chiefly aquatic bloodsucking or carnivorous annelid worms of the class Hirudinea, of which one species (Hirudo medicinalis) was formerly used by physicians to bleed patients and is now sometimes used as a temporary aid to circulation during surgical reattachment of a body part.
• One that preys on or clings to another; a parasite.