diff --git a/Doc/library/warnings.rst b/Doc/library/warnings.rst
index 71ce83c3f2e..18c4f8977a8 100644
--- a/Doc/library/warnings.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/warnings.rst
@@ -469,14 +469,21 @@ Available Functions
 .. function:: warn_explicit(message, category, filename, lineno, module=None, registry=None, module_globals=None, source=None)
 
    This is a low-level interface to the functionality of :func:`warn`, passing in
-   explicitly the message, category, filename and line number, and optionally the
-   module name and the registry (which should be the ``__warningregistry__``
-   dictionary of the module).  The module name defaults to the filename with
-   ``.py`` stripped; if no registry is passed, the warning is never suppressed.
+   explicitly the message, category, filename and line number, and optionally
+   other arguments.
    *message* must be a string and *category* a subclass of :exc:`Warning` or
    *message* may be a :exc:`Warning` instance, in which case *category* will be
    ignored.
 
+   *module*, if supplied, should be the module name.
+   If no module is passed, the filename with ``.py`` stripped is used.
+
+   *registry*, if supplied, should be the ``__warningregistry__`` dictionary
+   of the module.
+   If no registry is passed, each warning is treated as the first occurrence,
+   that is, filter actions ``"default"``, ``"module"`` and ``"once"`` are
+   handled as ``"always"``.
+
    *module_globals*, if supplied, should be the global namespace in use by the code
    for which the warning is issued.  (This argument is used to support displaying
    source for modules found in zipfiles or other non-filesystem import
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-10-17-23-58-11.gh-issue-140272.lhY8uS.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-10-17-23-58-11.gh-issue-140272.lhY8uS.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..666a45055f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-10-17-23-58-11.gh-issue-140272.lhY8uS.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix memory leak in the :meth:`!clear` method of the :mod:`dbm.gnu` database.
diff --git a/Modules/_gdbmmodule.c b/Modules/_gdbmmodule.c
index ea4fe247987..3fe08004790 100644
--- a/Modules/_gdbmmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/_gdbmmodule.c
@@ -612,8 +612,10 @@ _gdbm_gdbm_clear_impl(gdbmobject *self, PyTypeObject *cls)
         }
         if (gdbm_delete(self->di_dbm, key) < 0) {
             PyErr_SetString(state->gdbm_error, "cannot delete item from database");
+            free(key.dptr);
             return NULL;
         }
+        free(key.dptr);
     }
     Py_RETURN_NONE;
 }