leap
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: lēp
ipa: /liːp/
ipa: /lip/
ipa: /lɛp/
rhymes: -iːp
Forms: form: leaps
form: leaping
form: leaped
form: leapt
form: lept
form: lope
form: leaped
form: leapt
form: lept
form: lope
form: lopen
Etymology: From Middle English lepen, from Old English hlēapan, from Proto-West Germanic *hlaupan, from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną. Doublet of lope, lowp, elope, gallop, galop, interlope, and loop.
Cognate with North Frisian laap, luup, luupe (“to jog, run, walk”), Saterland Frisian lope, loope (“to run”), West Frisian ljeppe (“to jump”), Dutch lopen (“to run; to walk”), German laufen (“to run; to walk”), Limburgish loupe (“to jog, run, walk”), Low German lopen, loupen (“to run”), Luxembourgish lafen (“to run”), Vilamovian łaojfa (“to run”), Danish løbe (“to run”), Faroese leypa (“to jump”), Icelandic hlaupa (“to run; to jump”), Norwegian Bokmål løpe (“to run”), Norwegian Nynorsk laupa, laupe, løpa, løpe (“to run”), Swedish löpa (“to run”), from Proto-Indo-European *klewb- (“to spring, stumble”) (compare Lithuanian šlùbti ‘to become lame’, klùbti ‘to stumble’).
Senses: examples: text: It is grete nede a man to go bak to recouer the better his leep
ref: c. 1450, anonymous author, Merlin:
text: I, I defie thee: wert not thou next him when he leapt into the Riuer?
ref: 1600, anonymous author, The wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll, act 4:
text: Th’ infernal monarch rear’d his horrid head, Leapt from his throne, lest Neptune’s arm should lay His dark dominions open to the day.
ref: 1783, Hugh Blair, from the “Iliad” in Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, lecture 4, page 65
text: “See you, one should not ask for outside proof—no, reason should be enough. But the flesh is weak, it is consolation to find that one is on the right track. Ah, my friend, I am like a giant refreshed. I run! I leap!” And, in very truth, run and leap he did, gambolling wildly down the stretch of lawn outside the long window.
ref: 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 139:
text: It is better to leap into the void.
ref: 1999, Ai, Vice: New & Selected Poems, page 78
glosses: To jump.
examples: text: to leap a wall or a ditch
text: ⁠Deep folly! yet that this could be—
⁠That I could wing my will with might
⁠To leap the grades of life and light,
And flash at once, my friend, to thee: […]
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XL”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 62:
glosses: To pass over by a leap or jump.
glosses: To copulate with (a female beast)
examples: text: go leap her, and engender young devilings
ref: 1616–1619 (first performance), John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, “The Knight of Malta”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
glosses: To copulate with (a human)
examples: text: to leap a horse across a ditch
glosses: To cause to leap.
Synonyms: sense: jump from one location to another
word: bound
sense: jump from one location to another
word: hop
sense: jump from one location to another
word: jump
sense: jump from one location to another
word: spring
sense: jump upwards
word: bound
sense: jump upwards
word: hop
sense: jump upwards
word: jump
sense: jump upwards
word: spring
Derived terms: beleap
forthleap
leapable
leap ahead
leap at
leap down someone's throat
leaper
Leaper
leap for joy
leapingly
leap into action
leap month
leap out
leap smearing
leap through hoops
leap to mind
leap up
look before you leap
outleap
overleap
upleap