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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To spring or bound upward from or as if from the ground; jump: leaped over the wall; salmon leaping upriver.
  2. v. To move quickly or abruptly from one condition or subject to another: always leaping to conclusions.
  3. v. To act impulsively: leaped at the opportunity to travel.
  4. v. To jump over: couldn't leap the brook.
  5. v. To cause to leap: leap a horse over a hurdle.
  6. n. The act of leaping; a jump.
  7. n. A place jumped over or from.
  8. n. The distance cleared in a leap.
  9. n. An abrupt or precipitous passage, shift, or transition: a leap from rags to riches.
  10. idiom. by leaps and bounds Very quickly: growing by leaps and bounds.
  11. idiom. leap in the dark An act whose consequences cannot be predicted.
  12. idiom. leap of faith The act or an instance of believing or trusting in something intangible or incapable of being proved.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To spring clear of the ground or of any point of rest; pass through space by force of an initial bound or impulse; spring; jump; vault; bound.
  2. To move with springs or bounds; start suddenly or with quick motion; make a spring or bound; shoot or spring out or up.
  3. To go; travel. Compare landleaper.
  4. In music, to pass from any tone to one that is two or more diatonic steps distant from it. Synonyms Jump, Spring, etc. See skip.
  5. To pass over by leaping; jump over; spring or bound from one side to the other of: as, to leap a wall.
  6. To copulate with; cover: said of the males of certain beasts.
  7. To cause to take a leap; cause to pass by Leaping.
  8. n. The act or an act of leaping; a jump; a spring; a bound.
  9. n. The act of copulating with or covering a female: said of certain beasts.
  10. n. In music, a passing from any tone to one that is two or more diatonic steps distant from it.
  11. n. In mining, a fault or break in the strata.
  12. n. A basket.
  13. n. A trap or snare for fish.
  14. n. Half a bushel.

Wiktionary

  1. Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol
  2. v. To jump from one location to another.
  3. n. The act of leaping or jumping.
  4. n. The distance traversed by a leap or jump.
  5. n. A significant move forward.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A basket.
  2. n. A weel or wicker trap for fish.
  3. v. To spring clear of the ground, with the feet; to jump; to vault.
  4. v. To spring or move suddenly, as by a jump or by jumps; to bound; to move swiftly. Also Fig.
  5. v. To pass over by a leap or jump.
  6. v. To copulate with (a female beast); to cover.
  7. v. To cause to leap.
  8. n. The act of leaping, or the space passed by leaping; a jump; a spring; a bound.
  9. n. Copulation with, or coverture of, a female beast.
  10. n. A fault.
  11. n. A passing from one note to another by an interval, especially by a long one, or by one including several other and intermediate intervals.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a sudden and decisive increase
  2. v. jump down from an elevated point
  3. n. the distance leaped (or to be leaped)
  4. v. move forward by leaps and bounds
  5. v. pass abruptly from one state or topic to another
  6. v. cause to jump or leap
  7. n. a light, self-propelled movement upwards or forwards
  8. n. an abrupt transition

Etymologies

  1. Middle English lepen, from Old English hlēapan.

Examples

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Comments

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  • reesetee And of course the leaps are precisely 2.0574 meters. ;-) Nov 7, 2007

  • yarb The Welsh are a great race of leapers. It comes from living in valleys, you see. They're always leaping from one side to the other. Nov 7, 2007

  • reesetee A traditional Welsh unit of distance equal to 6 feet 9 inches or 2.0574 meters. Nov 7, 2007

‘leap’ has been looked up 2221 times, added to 18 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 6.