Link Centre Dictionary

leap

UK/ˈliːp/ US/ˈlɪi̯p/ fairly common
verb (3) noun (4)

verb

1.

move forward by leaps and bounds

  • “The horse bounded across the meadow”
  • “The child leapt across the puddle”
  • “Can you jump over the fence?”
Synonyms
2.

pass abruptly from one state or topic to another

  • “leap into fame”
  • “jump to a conclusion”
  • “jump from one thing to another”
Synonyms
3.

cause to jump or leap

  • “the trainer jumped the tiger through the hoop”
Synonyms

noun

1.
2.

an abrupt transition

  • “a successful leap from college to the major leagues”
Synonyms
3.

a sudden and decisive increase

  • “a jump in attendance”
Synonyms
4.

the distance leaped (or to be leaped)

  • “a leap of 10 feet”

Origin

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’).

Phrases

  • Byard's Leap
  • Lambeau Leap
  • leap ahead
  • leap at
  • leap day
  • leap down someone's throat
  • leap for joy
  • leap in the dark
  • leap into action
  • leap month
  • leap of faith
  • leap out

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

See also

Causes

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.