leach

3 definitions • 2 examples

When a chemical substance leaches or is leached from a material, especially soil, it is removed by the action of water passing through the material:

The calcium, potassium, and magnesium ions are leached or washed out of the top soil into lower inaccessible subsoil.

When soil, etc. has been leached, it has had chemical substances removed from it:

The soil has been so heavily leached through intensive farming that it is no longer fertile.

(of a substance) to come out of or be removed from another substance, esp. dirt, by passing water through it