Leap
Pronunciation
- enPR: lÄ“p, IPA: /liËp/
- Rhymes: -iËp
Origin
From Middle English lepen, from Old English hlēapan, from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną (compare West Frisian ljeppe ‘to jump’, Dutch lopen ‘to run; to walk’, German laufen ‘to run’, Danish løbe), from Proto-Indo-European (compare Lithuanian šlùbti ‘to become lame’, klùbti ‘to stumble’).
Full definition of leap
Verb
- (intransitive) To jump.
- circa 1450 anonymous, MerlinIt is grete nede a man to go bak to recouer the better his leep
- 1600, anonymous, The wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll, act 4I, I defie thee: wert not thou next him when he leapt into the Riuer?
- 1783, Hugh Blair, from the “Illiad†in Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, lecture 4, page 65Th’ infernal monarch rear’d his horrid head, Leapt from his throne, lest Neptune’s arm should lay His dark dominions open to the day.
- 1999, Ai, Vice: New & Selected Poems, page 78It is better to leap into the void.
- (transitive) To pass over by a leap or jump.to leap a wall or a ditch
- (transitive) To copulate with (a female beast); to cover.
- (transitive) To cause to leap.to leap a horse across a ditch
Usage notes
The choice between leapt and leaped is mostly a matter of regional differences: leapt is preferred in British English and leaped in American English. According to research by John Algeo (British or American English?, Cambridge, 2006), leapt is used 80% of the time in UK and 32% in the US.
Synonyms
Noun
leap
(plural leaps)- The act of leaping or jumping.
- L'EstrangeWickedness comes on by degrees, ... and sudden leaps from one extreme to another are unnatural.
- H. SweetChanges of tone may proceed either by leaps or glides.
- The distance traversed by a leap or jump.
- (figuratively) A significant move forward.
- 1969 July 20, Neil Armstrong, as he became the first man to step on the moonThat's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
- (mining) A fault.
- Copulation with, or coverture of, a female beast.
- (music) A passing from one note to another by an interval, especially by a long one, or by one including several other intermediate intervals.
- (obsolete) A basket.
- A weel or wicker trap for fish.