Definition of "leap"

leap¹

/liːp/

verb
third-person singular simple present leaps, present participle leaping, simple past leaped or leapt or (archaic) lept or (archaic) lope, past participle leaped or leapt or (archaic) lept or (archaic) lopen
1. (intransitive) To jump.
  Quotations
  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
  It is better to leap into the void.
  1999, Ai, Vice: New & Selected Poems, page 78
2. (transitive) To pass over by a leap or jump.
3. (archaic, transitive) To copulate with (a female beast)
4. (archaic) To copulate with (a human)
  Quotations
  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, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)
5. (transitive) To cause to leap.
noun
plural leaps
1. The act of leaping or jumping.
  Quotations
  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, […]
  Changes of tone may proceed either by leaps or glides.
  1877, Henry Sweet, A Handbook of Phonetics
2. The distance traversed by a leap or jump.
3. A group of leopards.
  Quotations
  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
  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".‎
  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. (figuratively) A significant move forward.
  Quotations
  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
5. (figuratively) A large step in reasoning, often one that is not justified by the facts.
6. (mining) A fault.
7. Copulation with, or coverture of, a female beast.
  Quotations
  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. (music) A passing from one note to another by an interval, especially by a long one, or by one including several other intermediate intervals.
9. A salmon ladder.
adjective
not comparable
1. (calendar) Intercalary, bissextile.

leap²

/liːp/

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

Definition of "leap"

leap1

verb

Quotations

Quotations

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

adjective

leap2

noun

leap¹

leap²