leak and drip

[dilodi83]

I'm opening this thread because I cannot catch the difference, if there is any, between these two verbs...can you help me with this?

In sentences like:
The tap is dripping
AND
The tap is leaking
Don't they mean the same?

 

[MartinEnglish]

drip means very small drops/droplets of water are falling - ("one, two, three, four..." - you can hear each one falling)
leak just means that something that SHOULD be held inside a container is coming out ("The oil leaked out of the ship", "the information was leaked by a politician", "the water leaked into the street from the broken pipe").

So a dripping tap is also a kind of leak but I hope you can see the difference now.

 

[Barb_D]

Without disagreeing with Martin, I can live with a faucet that drips. But if it's leaking, there is a steady stream of water coming out and I'd call a plumber.

 

[emsr2d2]

Without disagreeing with Martin, I can live with a faucet that drips. But if it's leaking, there is a steady stream of water coming out and I'd call a plumber.

Without disagreeing with anyone, if I were trying to sleep, I could do so with a leaking tap (if it wasn't flooding my flat) but I can't sleep if I can hear a dripping tap.

 

[Barb_D]

Not if you put a sponge under it. I figure the call to the plumber is much more than the water loss. I've been living with it for about three months now. Since I can't even change a washer, it would cost me more than I'm willing to spend to get it fixed.

 

[BobK]

Me neither ['Without disagreeing with anyone']. But if you care to take your researches a bit further you'll find that a tap can leak from the gland nut; and - if no drips fall as a result - the tap is leaking but not dripping.

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[JMurray]

A leaking gland nut sounds like something I'd lose sleep over.

 

[5jj]

A leaking gland nut sounds like something I'd lose sleep over.

It sounds like something I'd go to hospital with.

 

[BobK]

It sounds like something I'd go to hospital with.

There's a joke to be made here about the similarity between an old man and a leaking roof. Modesty forbids that I should repeat it, but reconstruction is invited as a DIY project. The key pun is 'enuretic', and depends on Edwardian Music Hall pronunciation (extreme RBP) in which stressed /æ/ makes the sound [e].

b