leaping

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leap

(lēp)

v. leaped or leapt (lĕpt, lēpt), leap·ing, leaps

v.intr.

a. To propel oneself quickly upward or a long way; spring or jump: The goat leaped over the wall. The salmon leapt across the barrier.

b. To move quickly or suddenly: leaped out of his chair to answer the door.

a. To change quickly or abruptly from one condition or subject to another: always leaping to conclusions.

b. To act quickly or impulsively: leaped at the opportunity to travel.

c. To enter eagerly into an activity; plunge: leapt into the project with both feet.

v.tr.

1. To propel oneself over: I couldn't leap the brook.

2. To cause to leap: She leapt her horse over the hurdle.

a. The act of leaping; a jump.

b. A place jumped over or from.

c. The distance cleared in a leap.

2. An abrupt or precipitous passage, shift, or transition: a leap from rags to riches.

Phrasal Verb:

leap out

To be readily noticed: The sign leapt out at us from the window.

Idioms:

by leaps and bounds

Very quickly: growing by leaps and bounds.

leap in the dark

An act whose consequences cannot be predicted.

leap of faith

The act or an instance of believing or trusting in something intangible or incapable of being proved.

[Middle English lepen, from Old English hlēapan.]

leap′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Leaping

See Also: JUMPING, ROCKING AND ROLLING

(The flashlight) leaped about like a will-o’-the-wisp —Brian Moore
Leaped from his chair as a runner leaps crouching, from the mark —Frank Swinnerton
See Also: RISING
Leaped like a fawn —Pat Conroy
Leaped like a high jumper —Frank Conroy
(Goats) leaped … like arrows speeding from the bow —Willa Cather
Leaped like a spring released —John Updike
Leaped … like a startled frog —Théophile Gautier
Leaped up like a little singed cat —O. Henry
Leaps like a buck in air —Caroline Finkelstein
Leaps like a flash —Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings
This is a line from the Anderson/Stallings play, What Price Glory.
(The pulse in his palm) leapt like a trout in a brook —Eudora Welty
Leaping through the air like a man released from gravity —Ed Bradley, about basketball star Michael Jordan, “Sixty Minutes,” February 15, 1987

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun

leaping - a light, self-propelled movement upwards or forwards

leap, bounce, bound, saltation, spring

jumping, jump - the act of jumping; propelling yourself off the ground; "he advanced in a series of jumps"; "the jumping was unexpected"

capriole, caper - a playful leap or hop

pounce - the act of pouncing

References in classic literature ?

Once a bolting horse knocked her down, and a moment later a lion, leaping in pursuit of another terror-stricken animal, brushed her so closely that she was again thrown from her feet.

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If he could reach the bottom and cover half the distance to the tree that stood in the center of the gulch he would feel comparatively safe for then, even if Numa appeared, he felt that he could beat him either to the cliff or to the tree, but to scale the first thirty feet of the cliff rapidly enough to elude the leaping beast would require a running start of at least twenty feet as there were no very good hand- or footholds close to the bottom--he had had to run up the first twenty feet like a squirrel running up a tree that other time he had beaten an infuriated Numa to it.

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Leaping, as he thought, to the exact centre of the tunnel, he held his sword point ready on a line with the beast's chest.

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The black, in defence, aimed a kick at Jerry, who, leaping in instead of away--another inheritance from Terrence--avoided the bare foot and printed a further red series of parallel lines on the dark leg.

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And for years afterwards, perhaps, ships shun the place; leaping over it as silly sheep leap over a vacuum, because their leader originally leaped there when a stick was held.

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With the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or the stars leaping in the frost dance, and the land numb and frozen under its pall of snow, this song of the huskies might have been the defiance of life, only it was pitched in minor key, with long- drawn wailings and half-sobs, and was more the pleading of life, the articulate travail of existence.

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The great bulls were dancing in the moonlight, leaping in an irregular circle about the flat-topped earthen drum about which three old females sat beating its resounding top with sticks worn smooth by long years of use.

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When he came to his next pause, which was within certain leaping distance, he crouched lower, gathered himself for the leap, then turned his head to regard the men at his back outside the cage.

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He counts his cubs six and eight at the litter, as though he were Chikai, the little leaping rat.

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Still Histah whipped about, clinging to the ape-man; but after a dozen efforts Tarzan succeeded in wriggling free and leaping to the ground out of range of the mighty battering of the dying snake.