leap

Etymology 1

From Middle English lepen, from Old English hlēapan, from Proto-West Germanic *hlaupan, from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną. Cognate with West Frisian ljeppe (“to jump”), Dutch lopen (“to run; to walk”), German laufen (“to run; to walk”), Danish løbe, Norwegian Bokmål løpe, from Proto-Indo-European *klewb- (“to spring, stumble”) (compare Lithuanian šlùbti ‘to become lame’, klùbti ‘to stumble’).

verb

1. (intransitive) To jump.
   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 “Illiad” 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.
   to leap a wall or a ditch
3. (archaic, transitive) To copulate with (a female beast)
4. (archaic) To copulate with (a human)
5. (transitive) To cause to leap.
   to leap a horse across a ditch

noun

1. The act of leaping or jumping.
   He made a leap across the river.
   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. A group of leopards.
   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.... 2005-07-23, 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. (figurative) A significant move forward.
   1969 July 20, Neil Armstrong, as he became the first man to step on the moon That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.
5. (figurative) A 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. (mining) A fault.
7. Copulation with, or coverture of, a female beast.
   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.

adj

1. (calendar) Intercalary, bissextile.

Etymology 2

From Middle English lep, from Old English lēap (“basket”), from Proto-West Germanic *laup, from Proto-Germanic *laupaz (“container, basket”). Cognate with Icelandic laupur (“basket”).

noun

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