leap

present singular third person leaps · participle present leaping · past leaped · past leapt · archaic past lept · obsolete past lope · participle past leaped · participle past leapt · archaic participle past lept · obsolete participle past lope · obsolete participle past lopen

1. intransitiveTo jump.

   It is better to leap into the void.

   1999, Ai, Vice: New & Selected Poems, page 78

   4 more examples

   It is grete nede a man to go bak to recouer the better his leep

   c. 1450, anonymous author, Merlin

   I, I defie thee: wert not thou next him when he leapt into the Riuer?

   1600, anonymous author, The wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll, act 4

   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.

   1783, Hugh Blair, from the “Iliad” in Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, lecture 4, page 65

   “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.

   1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 139

   Synonyms: bound, hop, jump, spring, bound, hop, jump, spring

2. transitiveTo pass over by a leap or jump.

   to leap a wall or a ditch

   1 more example

   ⁠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: […]

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XL”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 62

3. archaictransitiveTo copulate with (a female beast)
4. archaicTo copulate with (a human)

   go leap her, and engender young devilings

   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)

5. transitiveTo cause to leap.

   to leap a horse across a ditch

plural leaps

1. The act of leaping or jumping.

   He made a leap across the river.

   2 more examples

   Leaps from one Extream to Another , are Unnatural Motions in the Course of our lives and Humours

   1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC

   1877, Henry Sweet, A Handbook of Phonetics Changes of tone may proceed either by leaps or glides.

2. The distance traversed by a leap or jump.
3. collectiveA group of leopards.

   I can see it now... a leap of Leopards eating the carcass of a Longhorn out in the Vista....

   2005 July 23, Next Windows to be named "Vista".

   3 more examples

   Manikanta returned to the palace riding on a royal tiger accompanied by a leap of leopards to the utter surprise of the inhabitants of Pantalam.

   1970, The Calcutta Review, page 373

   Without the Chop Chop Chop Chop Cowville seems almost normal: no hover of helicopters, no leap of leopards.

   2009, Cooper, The President's Dilemma: A Novel, page 131

   I felt like the only one of my kind, and all around me were the other kids in their groups like herds of wildebeests and prides of lions and crashes of rhinos and unkindnesses of ravens and leaps of leopards and wrecks of sea hawks.

   2017, Sandra Evans, This Is Not a Werewolf Story, page 22

4. figurativelyA significant move forward.

   That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.

   1969 July 20, Neil Armstrong, as he became the first man to step on the moon

   1 more example

   Since the arrival of mainstream pornography platforms in the early 2000’s and the rise in smartphone use, online pornography consumption has shown considerable year on year leaps.

   2024 May 30, Germano Vera Cruz, Elias Aboujaoude, Magdalena Liberacka-Dwojak, Monika Wiłkość-Dębczyńska, Lucien Rochat, Riaz Khan, Yasser Khazaal, “How much online pornography is too much? A comparison of two theoretically distinct assessment scales”, in Archives of Public Health, volume 82, →DOI

5. figurativelyA large step in reasoning, often one that is not justified by the facts.

   It's quite a leap to claim that those cloud formations are evidence of UFOs.

6. businessA fault.
7. Copulation (by a male animal) with a female one.

   Much difference of opinion exists as to the number of bullings a cow should receive. Here, I think, good judgment should be used. If the bull is cool and quiet, and some time has intervened since he had his last cow, one good leap is better than more […]

   1865, British Farmer's Magazine, number 48, page 8

8. entertainmentA passing from one note to another by an interval, especially by a long one, or by one including several other intermediate intervals.
9. A small cataract over which fish attempt to jump; a salmon ladder.

   […] where the Esk divides it in the middle, and forms a linn or leap, is named the How burn; […]

   1868, John Marius Wilson, The Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, page 24

   1 more example

   He unfortunately persevered, and the cot veered round towards the fall of the leap, and was running fast towards the rapids, when Mr. Craven lost his self-possession, and jumped out to gain a rock within a length of him, but did not succe[e]d, and he sunk in a part of the river over the leap called the dancing-hole, from which he was never more seen to rise. The cot was dashed with violence against another rock […]

   1837, The New Sporting Magazine, volume 12, page 358

1. not comparablecalendarIntercalary, bissextile.

plural leaps · alternative leep

1. A trap or snare for fish, made from twigs; a weely.
2. Half a bushel.

1. abbreviationinitialismcomputingInitialism of Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol.
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3. abbreviationinitialismbusinessInitialism of long-term equity anticipation security, a kind of option having an expiry date farther (running about a year or longer) than the regular ones.

plural Leaps

1. A surname.