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Leap   Listen
noun
Leap  n.  
1.
The act of leaping, or the space passed by leaping; a jump; a spring; a bound. "Wickedness comes on by degrees,... and sudden leaps from one extreme to another are unnatural." "Changes of tone may proceed either by leaps or glides."
2.
Copulation with, or coverture of, a female beast.
3.
(Mining) A fault.
4.
(Mus.) A passing from one note to another by an interval, especially by a long one, or by one including several other and intermediate intervals.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Leap" Quotes from Famous Books



... well; you need some tube or trough, or other means of confining the stream at the spring. For the conveyance of the current to any distance you must build either enclosed or open aqueduct; and in the hot square of the city where you set it free, you find it good for health and pleasantness to let it leap into a fountain. On these several needs you have a school of sculpture founded; in the decoration of the walls of wells in level countries, and of the sources of springs in mountainous ones, and chiefly of all, where ...
— Lectures on Art - Delivered before the University of Oxford in Hilary term, 1870 • John Ruskin

... in a little group by themselves, talking earnestly in undertones, while men wondered whether the paper would undo what the speech had done, and whether the Premier's words had won a victory, only for his deeds to leap to light and rob ...
— Half a Hero - A Novel • Anthony Hope

... Magus, did not coincide with this; he conjectured that the presents intimated: 'Unless, O Persians, ye become birds, and fly into the air, or become mice and hide yourselves beneath the earth, or become frogs and leap into the lakes, ye shall never return home again, but be stricken by these arrows.' And thus the other Persians interpreted the gifts." (Herodotus, by Carey, IV. 131, 132.) Again, more than 500 years after Noghai and Toktai ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa

... international exposition has there been one of greater importance than this will be, marking as it does the fiftieth anniversary of the ascension to the throne of the Emperor of Japan. The extraordinary leap to a foremost place among the nations of the world made by Japan during this half century is something unparalleled in all previous history. This exposition will fitly commemorate and signalize the ...
— State of the Union Addresses of Theodore Roosevelt • Theodore Roosevelt

... cat now prepared to leap upon him. It crouched low, shaking its short tail from side to side. The leap was about to be taken when, of a sudden, bang! went a gun, and the beast rolled over ...
— Young Captain Jack - The Son of a Soldier • Horatio Alger and Arthur M. Winfield

... received in the crowd. A more common account is that Remus, in derision of his brother, leaped over the newly-erected walls, and was thereupon slain by Romulus in a fit of passion, who, mocking him, added words to this effect:" So perish every one hereafter, who shall leap over my walls." Thus Romulus obtained possession of supreme power for himself alone. The city, when built, was called after the name of its founder.[5] He first proceeded to fortify the Palatine Hill, on which he himself had been brought up. He offered sacrifices to Hercules, according to the ...
— Roman History, Books I-III • Titus Livius

... away down below, stared up at her. She went down a third of the way, and stopped just in time to save herself from going over a sheer wall of rocks—stopped because a rock which she dislodged with her foot rolled down the slope a few feet, gave a leap ...
— The Flying U's Last Stand • B. M. Bower

... till October hardly a shower falls upon the soil, which parches and cracks in the hot sunshine. The settlements are all at the base of the mountains, where they can take advantage of the brooks that leap down through the canons. They are, therefore, necessarily scattered along the line of the main Wahsatch range, from the Roseaux River, which flows into the Salt Lake from the north, to the Vegas of the Santa Clara,—a distance of nearly four hundred miles. The labor ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 19, May, 1859 • Various

... worlds within, hidden from sight And laboring for birth. This chaos deep Touch thou, O Thought! and crystallize to form, Resolve to order its wild lightning storm Of meteor dreams! that into life shall leap At thy command, and move before thy face In ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 5, May, 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... at first seemed to suffer some depression, took vigour once more from the air of the downs. He put Oberon at a leap or two, then let the breeze sing in his ears as he was borne at a gallop over the summer land, golden with sunlight. In spite of his still worn look, health was manifest in the upright vigour of his form, and in his eyes gleamed the untroubled joy of existence. Hope just ...
— A Life's Morning • George Gissing

... the Indians closing round him. Then he set his long lance in the water, and to the astonishment of both armies, leapt the canal clean, while the Indians shouted, "This is indeed the Tonatiah, the child of the Sun." The gap is shown now, and it is called to this day, Alvarado's Leap. God forgive him! for if he was a cruel man, he was at least a ...
— True Words for Brave Men • Charles Kingsley

... of excitement. Edith sang, and Margaret played some of her elfin strains, and Mr. Regulus made music leap joyously from the sounding violin. There was one in the lonely library who might have made sweeter music than all, whose spirit's chords were all jangled and tuneless, and whose ear seemed closed ...
— Ernest Linwood - or, The Inner Life of the Author • Caroline Lee Hentz

... leap over the walls in their shirts. Enter, several ways, the Bastard of Orleans, Alencon, and Reignier, half ready, ...
— King Henry VI, First Part • William Shakespeare [Aldus edition]

... passed the live-long night Beside her bed whom sleep Deserted long. Delirium seized her, when she'd leap And clutch, as if she'd rend the bars so strong Which girt the windows round, and ...
— Rowena & Harold - A Romance in Rhyme of an Olden Time, of Hastyngs and Normanhurst • Wm. Stephen Pryer

... the background of history is to have a notion of the Day of Judgment. Old forgotten iniquities and adventures leap to light. Chirnside, like Logan and the Douglases of Whittingham, and John Colville, and the Laird of Spot, had followed the fortunes of wild Frank Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, and nephew of the Bothwell of Queen Mary. Frank Bothwell was driven into his perilous courses by a charge of practising ...
— James VI and the Gowrie Mystery • Andrew Lang

... sitting here before the cheery blaze, And she should ask me what I'd like to-morrow—day of days— Would not my heart leap to my mouth, as any chap's would do, While leaning down to her pink ...
— With the Colors - Songs of the American Service • Everard Jack Appleton

... sword dances, where various figures were performed. Sometimes the participants forming two long lines, crossed their swords, point upward, and challenged the boldest among their number to take a flying leap over them. At other times the warriors joined their sword points closely together in the shape of a rose or wheel, and when this figure was complete invited their chief to stand on the navel thus formed of flat, shining steel blades, and then they bore him upon it through the camp in triumph. ...
— Myths of the Norsemen - From the Eddas and Sagas • H. A. Guerber

... convoy imposed by the submarine war represented a leap backward in the life of the sea. It recalled to Ferragut's mind the sailing fleets of other centuries, escorted by navies in line, punctuating their course by incessant battles, and the remote voyages of the galleons of the Indies, setting forth from Seville in fleets when bound for ...
— Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) - A Novel • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... road to turn into the main highway, a man stepped out from the bushes and seized Old Calamity by the bridle. Mr. Belcher struck his horse a heavy blow, and the angry beast, by a single leap, not only shook himself clear of the grasp upon his bit, but hurled the intercepting figure upon the ground. A second man stood ready to deal with Mr. Belcher, but the latter in passing gave him a furious cut with his whip, and Old Calamity was, in twenty ...
— Sevenoaks • J. G. Holland

... creepin' close, In the dark, to our white-cliffed isle; They were ready to leap at England's throat, When—O, you may ...
— Collected Poems - Volume Two (of 2) • Alfred Noyes

... their midst. The word rendered 'rejoices' in the first verse of our text is not the same as that so translated in the second. The latter means literally, to move in a circle; while the former literally means, to leap for joy. Thus the gladness of God is thought of as expressing itself in dignified, calm movements, whilst Zion's joy is likened in its expression to the more violent movements of the dance. True human joy is like God's, in that He delights in us and we in Him, and ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St Matthew Chapters I to VIII • Alexander Maclaren

... deal of wit, Sir?' JOHNSON. 'I do not think so, Sir. He is, indeed, continually attempting wit, but he fails. And I have no more pleasure in hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over a ditch ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... about one mile to the S. S. W. of the Refuge, near the boundary ridge of the high land, through which they have made a deep cut, and formed a valley of a very romantic character. A short distance above their junction, each branch takes a leap downward of about seventy feet; and when united, they do not run above a quarter of a mile northward before they descend with redoubled force a precipice of nearly one hundred and twenty feet; there are then one or two small cascades, ...
— A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2 • Matthew Flinders

... galled with fetters; all my motions, whether I rose up or sat down, were echoed to with the clanking of chains; I was tied down like a wild beast, and could not move but in a circle of a few feet in circumference. Now I can run fleet as a greyhound, and leap like a young roe upon the mountains. Oh, God! (if God there be that condescends to record the lonely beatings of an anxious heart) thou only canst tell with what delight a prisoner, just broke forth ...
— Caleb Williams - Things As They Are • William Godwin

... questions," cried Phelan. With a desperate backward leap he gained the narrow doorway behind and vanished. He pulled the door shut and clung to the knob, hearing the ...
— Officer 666 • Barton W. Currie

... his arm; and, being the soberest man of the company, I started off, guided by a negro servant, for Doctor Greyfriars. On our return, the first thing that met our eyes was the redoubted Don himself, lying on his back where he had fallen at his leap, with his head over the step at the door of the piazza. I thought his neck was broken; and the doctor, considering that he was the culprit to be carved, forthwith had him carried in, his coat taken off, and was about striking a phleme into him, when ...
— Tom Cringle's Log • Michael Scott

... looked down upon her, but what she asked they could not, would not, answer. Night after night she had asked, and night after night they had only twinkled as of old. She had traveled now for four months, and still the doubt beset her. It was to be a leap in the dark, with no one to tell her what was on the other side. But why this insistent doubt? Why could she not take the leap gladly, as a woman should who had given the affirmative to a man? With him she was certain that she loved him, away from him she did not know what sentiment really ...
— Parrot & Co. • Harold MacGrath

... animal was formerly supposed to be peculiar to America, from whence its name is derived. Being nocturnal in their habits, nothing is to be seen of them in the daytime, unless you can catch a glimpse of one at noontide, sleeping soundly in the hollow of a tree. When night comes, they leap from bough to bough with the greatest animation, especially if it be moonlight. Some species, with thin membranes between the fore and hind paws, can take a flying leap of, sometimes, thirty yards from tree to tree; and hence ...
— Captain Cook - His Life, Voyages, and Discoveries • W.H.G. Kingston

... ever onward actively. The worst vice a style can have is languor. With some writers a full stop is a double full stop: the reader does not get forward. Much writing consists of little more than sluggish eddies. In many minds there is not leap enough for a style. Excellence in style demands three vivacities, and rather exacting ones, for they involve a somewhat rare mental apportionment; the vivacities of healthy and poetic feeling, of intellectual nimbleness, and ...
— Essays AEsthetical • George Calvert

... they leap within the human circle. Their painted faces are distorted with the effort of their wild exertions; their befeathered heads are rendered still more hideous by the lurid blending of conflicting lights. Thirty creatures, ...
— The Watchers of the Plains - A Tale of the Western Prairies • Ridgewell Cullum

... make a similar step as regards the second dynamical idea, namely, that of a necessary being. We could not rise to it from the sensible world without the aid of the first dynamical idea. For if we attempted to do so, we should have ventured to leave at a bound all that is given to us, and to leap to that of which nothing is given us that can help us to effect the connection of such a supersensible being with the world of sense (since the necessary being would have to be known as given outside ourselves). On the ...
— The Critique of Practical Reason • Immanuel Kant

... their chins. But the beginning of the distaste for rainy weather may be traced to Noah. Certain it is that toward the end of his cruise, when the passengers were already chafing with the animals—the kangaroos, in particular, it is said, played leap-frog in the hold and disturbed the skipper's sleep—certain it is while the heavens were still overcast that Noah each morning put his head anxiously up through the forward hatch for a change of sky. ...
— Chimney-Pot Papers • Charles S. Brooks

... back Mrs. Tuis, and I apologized abjectly for my presumption, and Dr. Perrin announced that he thought he ought to see Dr. Overton, and another doctor as well. I saw fear leap into Aunt Varina's eyes. "Oh, what is it?" she cried. "What is the matter ...
— Sylvia's Marriage • Upton Sinclair

... fact is barren, M. Delbeuf repeats certain statements with which readers of modern zoological science are tolerably familiar, such as the following: A flea can jump two hundred times its length; therefore a horse, were its strength proportioned to its weight, could leap the Rocky Mountains, and a whale could spring two hundred leagues in height. An Amazon ant walks about eight feet per minute, but if the progress of a human Amazon were proportioned to her larger size, she ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 430, March 29, 1884 • Various

... some of them pretty well analyzed, of cat-phobias. The greatest enemies of mankind were once the felidae, and the theory now is that this type is made up of very definite elements, viz., sharp claws, stealthy tread, eyes that shine in the dark, power to leap far and suddenly, a uniquely developed voice, etc. Now the cat-phobiacs generally focus on some one of these traits in consciousness, but analysis seems to show that the rest of them reinforce the one that experience happens to thrust forward into the center of the field of consciousness. ...
— The Journal of Abnormal Psychology - Volume 10

... to any other site as having been veritably the Traitor's Leap," said Kenyon, "because it was so convenient to the Capitol. It was an admirable idea of those stern old fellows to fling their political criminals down from the very summit on which stood the Senate House and Jove's ...
— The Marble Faun, Volume I. - The Romance of Monte Beni • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... leap over intervening years: After Mr. Cleveland retired from his second term I used to meet him very frequently on social occasions and formal celebrations. He soon left the practice of law and settled ...
— My Memories of Eighty Years • Chauncey M. Depew

... two-thirds of the barrier, but they did not leap into the enclosure, as though wavering in the fear of some trap. They gazed into the dark barricade as one would gaze into a lion's den. The light of the torch illuminated only their bayonets, their bear-skin caps, and the upper part of ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo

... bite Of this abandoned parasite You're very, very rash; So sure is it to raise a frown I dare not even write it down; I simply put a ——. None but an entomologist Will quite admit the things exist, And generally they insist On using other names; For, when at night Professors leap Out of their scientific sleep Because these little devils keep Playing their usual games, They never shout, "It seems to be A something, something, something ——!" (The word is never used, you see, Except by artisans); No, as they fling the bedclothes high They give a wild but ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, October 27, 1920 • Various

... a pink flower. It stands in a deep pool about a hundred yards in circumference, and as like as not we shall find the surface of the water covered by thousands of green-backed, red-billed garfish and silvery mullet, whose very numbers prevent them from escaping. Scores of them leap out upon the sand, and lie there with panting gill and flapping tail. It is a great place for us boys, for here at low tides in the winter we strip off, and with naked hands catch the mullet and gars and silvery-sided trumpeters, and throw them out on the beach, to be grilled later ...
— By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories • Louis Becke

... replied, that he saw no objection to this step; and that if Bute thought there was, he might put it into hands that would resign it to him when he thought proper to take it. But Bute was not disposed to try the duke too much, nor to risk too bold a leap at once: so all ill humours were concealed under a ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... hand, there is not a word of sense possible to prove that it is really so; and from the not impossible to the real is a strange 'ultra'-Rhodian leap. ...
— The Literary Remains Of Samuel Taylor Coleridge • Edited By Henry Nelson Coleridge

... both were children, and in lonely haunts Would scratch a ragged oval on the sand, And each at either dash from either end— Shame never made girl redder than Gareth joy. He laughed; he sprang. 'Out of the smoke, at once I leap from Satan's foot to Peter's knee— These news be mine, none other's—nay, the King's— Descend into the city:' whereon he sought The King alone, and found, and told ...
— Idylls of the King • Alfred, Lord Tennyson

... graceful of antelopes. It lives upon stony plains and in mountain valleys in South Africa— hence its name of stein-boc, or stone buck. It is very swift, and, when at full speed, will often spring over fifteen feet at a single leap. Its flesh is much prized, and on this account it is hunted eagerly by the natives; so that, although one of the swiftest of animals, it is now rare in most ...
— Quadrupeds, What They Are and Where Found - A Book of Zoology for Boys • Mayne Reid

... in a circular form. The reed fence being quite flexible is gradually moved in, narrowing the circle. As the circle narrows, the agitation inside is indescribable; fish jumping in all directions—a moving mass of glittering scales and fins. The larger ones try to leap the barrier, and are caught by the attendant mullahs, who pounce on them with swift dexterity. Eagles and kites dart and swoop down, bearing off a captive fish in their talons. The reed fence is doubled back on itself, and gradually pushed on till the whole of the fish inside are jammed ...
— Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier - Twelve Years Sporting Reminiscences of an Indigo Planter • James Inglis

... did not know that fact and became alarmed at the little girl's seeming danger. So he gave a sudden leap and leaped full upon the back ...
— The Lost Princess of Oz • L. Frank Baum

... retreat? The roaring flames already bar his way, Like ravenous demons raging for their prey! He laughs at danger,—pauses not for rest, Till the sweet charge is folded to his breast. Now, quick, brave youth, retrace your path;—but lo! A fiery gulf yawns fearfully below! One desperate leap!—lost! lost!—the flames arise And paint their triumph on the o'erarching skies! Not lost! again his tottering form appears! The applauding shouts of rapturous friends he hears! The big drops from his manly forehead roll, And deep emotions thrill his generous ...
— The Canadian Elocutionist • Anna Kelsey Howard

... [Footnote: Elephants have been known to swim a river three hundred yards wide with the hind legs tied together.] but can neither trot nor gallop; their only pace is a walk, which may be Increased to a shuffle of fifteen miles an hour for a very short distance; they cannot leap, and a ditch eight by eight feet ...
— Afghanistan and the Anglo-Russian Dispute • Theo. F. Rodenbough

... a flood— So do I live in lane and wood. Let me look forward to each spring As eager as the birds that sing; And feed my eyes on spring's young flowers Before the bees by many hours, My heart to leap and sing her praise Before the birds by many days. Go white my hair and skin go dry— But let my heart a dewdrop lie Inside those leaves when they go wrong, As fresh as when my life ...
— Foliage • William H. Davies

... dagger, and bade him, with a fearful threat, take care how he played traitor. The worthy burgher roared incontinently—whether with pain or patriotism; and the whole array of respectabilities—having found a Curtius who would leap into the gulf, joined in unanimous chorus, and saluted Orestes as Emperor; while Hypatia, amid the shouts of her aristocratic scholars, rose and knelt before him, writhing inwardly with shame and despair, and entreated him to accept that tutelage of ...
— Hypatia - or, New Foes with an Old Face • Charles Kingsley

... voice rose higher and higher and the music grew louder and louder, more and more men joined the dance, until finally all the tribe was dancing about the fire, and their pace grew ever faster. Now, from time to time, one would leap in the air uttering savage cries and yells, then another, and finally all seemed absolutely lost in a sort of demon's frenzy. Suddenly, at a sharp command from the chief, the dance and the music ceased, ...
— Historic Boyhoods • Rupert Sargent Holland

... could be torn down, or burnt up, and so the earth be rid of it, and grass be sown abundantly over its foundation. Not that I should ever visit its site again! for, sir, the farther I get away from it, the more does the joy, the lightsome freshness, the heart-leap, the intellectual dance, the youth, in short,—yes, my youth, my youth!—the more does it come back to me. No longer ago than this morning, I was old. I remember looking in the glass, and wondering at my own gray hair, and the wrinkles, many and deep, right across my brow, ...
— The House of the Seven Gables • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... no longer be running the risk of being the first to take the leap in the dark and the unknown. The United States, England and other countries have opened the way. In the State of Wyoming in the United States, woman suffrage has been tested since 1869. On November 12, 1872, writing from Laramie City, Wyo., ...
— Woman under socialism • August Bebel

... food upon the surface of the singing stream and the lovely fish, their sides reflecting rainbow colors, would leap from the tinkling waters and splash about to show their pleasure. And she would place food about her little garden for the birds and they in turn repaid ...
— Friendly Fairies • Johnny Gruelle

... a hollow between two shoulders of rock, the cascade of the Biasse leaps down into the valley. The highest leap falls in a jet of about a hundred feet, and the lower, divided into two by a projecting ledge, breaks into a shower of spray which falls about a hundred and fifty feet more into the abyss below. Even in Switzerland this fall would be considered ...
— The Huguenots in France • Samuel Smiles

... sky; yet the sun now and then breaks through, appearing like the avenging eye of Jehovah. Fierce lightnings leap from the heavens, enveloping the earth in a sheet of flame. Above the terrific roar of thunder, voices, mysterious and awful, declare the doom of the wicked. The words spoken are not comprehended by all; ...
— The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan • Ellen G. White

... thou day o' the world, Chain mine arm'd neck; leap thou, attire and all, Through proof of harness to my heart, and there Ride on the pants triumphing!" Ant. and ...
— Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. • H. N. Hudson

... means which ought never to be thwarted. A child ought not to be constrained to stay anywhere when he wishes to go away, or to go away when he wishes to stay. When their will is not spoiled by our own fault, children do not wish for anything without good reason. They ought to leap, to run, to shout, whenever they will. All their movements are necessities of nature, which is endeavoring to strengthen itself. But we must take heed of those wishes they cannot themselves accomplish, but must fulfil by the hand of another. Therefore care ...
— Emile - or, Concerning Education; Extracts • Jean Jacques Rousseau

... leap into the abyss, which won't be so terrifying, since it involves no change of method. The cube must move into the fourth dimension, developing there a hyper-cube. This is impossible, for the reason the cube would have to move out of our space altogether—three-dimensional ...
— Architecture and Democracy • Claude Fayette Bragdon

... is full of clouds that are darker and heavier than lead; the thunder is rumbling, and doleful ghosts of purgatory seem to be floating in the glare of the lightning. The weight of the storm lies on my soul; my bewildered mind quivers like the flashes which leap from the firmament. It seems as if my whole being were about to burst like the tempest. Ah, could I but lift up to you a voice like unto its voice! Had I the power to lay bare the agonies and passions ...
— Mauprat • George Sand

... flew from the man's shoulder where it was perched, balanced for a second on the top of his head, then clung to the ceiling and darted out of the window without a moment's delay. It crossed the island in a single leap, scuttled to the top of the tree, peered about over ...
— The Extra Day • Algernon Blackwood

... feast-day of the kings, los Reyes, when after my return to Mexico, I was again in the saddle, riding out from Mexico toward the village of Tezcuco. I had to take a by-way to avoid the Guadalupe road, which was blocked up in consequence of the holiday. In doing so, I had to leap a ditch or canal, in which both I and my horse came near closing our pilgrimage in a quagmire; but in time we were again upon the road. It is a dreary place about the hill of Tepeyaca, or Guadalupe, and if ...
— Mexico and its Religion • Robert A. Wilson

... causality—one of the analogies of experience. The latter belongs to the principles of modality, which to the determination of causality adds the conception of necessity, which is itself, however, subject to a rule of the understanding. The principle of continuity forbids any leap in the series of phenomena regarded as changes (in mundo non datur saltus); and likewise, in the complex of all empirical intuitions in space, any break or hiatus between two phenomena (non datur hiatus)—for we ...
— The Critique of Pure Reason • Immanuel Kant

... appeared to be a Lion-Rampant. The Lion, seeing me very much surprized, told me, in a gentle Voice, that I might come by him if I pleased: 'For' (says he) 'I do not intend to hurt anybody'. I thanked him very kindly, and passed by him. And in a little time after saw him leap upon the Stage, and act his Part with very great Applause. It has been observed by several, that the Lion has changed his manner of Acting twice or thrice since his first Appearance; which will not seem strange, when I acquaint my Reader that the Lion has been ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

... spent most of her days in the orchard with the pups. When tired of their frivolity, she would retire to the roots of the oak tree and give them to understand that they were not to bother her further, or she would leap the gate leading into the garden, leaving her offspring gaping admiringly upon its orchard side, and stroll into the Master's den for an hour or so. On one occasion she opened a new vista of life before Finn and the others. At the higher end of the orchard, nearest to the open downs, there were ...
— Finn The Wolfhound • A. J. Dawson

... would loosen his hold, and that the hard iron something in their mouths would snap in two and relieve them, they were enjoying their own speed, taking in great draughts of fine air, keeping their eyes open and their ears ready for any startling thing that might leap from the rustling bushes along the drive, or from the shadows of the road-side trees, and longing in an elegant, well-fed way for the plentiful supper that awaited them at home. Next was the group of little belated ...
— Donald and Dorothy • Mary Mapes Dodge

... quoth he, now wha begins: With that the foul Seven Deadly Sins Begoud to leap at anis. And first of all in Dance was Pride, With hair wyld back, and bonnet on side, Like to make vaistie wanis;[116] And round about him, as a wheel, Hang all in rumples to the heel His kethat for the nanis:[117] Mony proud trumpour[118] with him trippit; Through ...
— English Satires • Various

... was half-starved with hunger, stretched himself all along upon the ground, and lay as if he were dead, that he might entice the harmless birds to come within his reach, and then leap of a sudden upon them, and make them his prey; but it happened that a Raven, who was hovering near him, observed that he fetched his breath; and, by consequence, found it to be only a trick in him to catch the birds. She, therefore, ...
— Favourite Fables in Prose and Verse • Various

... would fly to it because you have been trained that way—to be direct and daring. But I am made differently. Life has taught me; it is in my blood and bone to stop and question, to look so long that at last I lose the will to choose, or to leap. There are some of us ...
— One Man in His Time • Ellen Glasgow

... which were fastened to the wheels, and stretched out beyond the car on each side, for that cruel purpose. In a moment, while at full speed, the horses would stop, at the driver's command. The men within would leap out, deal blows about them with their swords like hail, leap on the horses, on the pole, spring back into the chariots anyhow; and, as soon as they were safe, the horses tore ...
— A Child's History of England • Charles Dickens

... particularly lucid, but Josie, with a flying mental leap, arrived at the conclusion that it was very important that Uncle James, whoever he was, should have a dinner, and she knew where one was to be had. But before she could speak Stephen returned, looking rueful. "No use, Lexy. That man was only old Mr. Byers, and he had seen no signs of ...
— Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1905 to 1906 • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... to Sir John Whitefoord of Ballochmyle, to the maximum number of ninety-two, in 1788, the great year of the Clarinda episode. It is in 1786, the year of the publication of his first volume at Kilmarnock, the year of his literary birth, that his correspondence first becomes heavy. It rises at a leap from two letters in the preceding year to as many as forty-four. The phenomenal increase is partly explained by the success of his poems. He became a man that was worth the knowing, whose correspondence was worth preserving. The six years of his published correspondence ...
— The Letters of Robert Burns • Robert Burns

... things in general. It was a dismal November afternoon, she had no engagements, and was feeling utterly bored as she took tea alone in the drawing room of her aunt's house in Mayfair, when, to her astonishment, Don Carlos de Ruiz was announced. Her heart gave a convulsive leap at the mere mention of his name, and it was throbbing faster than its wont as she rose to greet him, although she assumed an attitude ...
— Bandit Love • Juanita Savage

... living in the midst of them. This may be said without in the least detracting from his merits as a discoverer. In real life people do not spring from something baseless to something substantial, as people in sick dreams. A great invention or discovery is often like a daring leap, but it is from land to land, not from nothing to something; and if we look at the subject with this consideration fully before us, we shall probably admit that Columbus had as large a share in the merit of his discovery as most inventors or discoverers can lay claim to. ...
— The Life of Columbus • Arthur Helps

... that time near enough for us to see two persons leap overboard; one, it seemed, holding on to the other. They approached. Again a voice shouted "Look out!" Roger Trew ran to the point of the rock, holding on to the rope, and stretching over into the sea. We could now distinguish the two men. ...
— In the Eastern Seas • W.H.G. Kingston

... often stole into the officers' cabin and pulled books down from the shelves, tearing the backs off and then destroying the leaves. As an instance of her sure-footedness and activity I may mention that I have seen her leap twice her own height from the stem of the midship boat, in endeavouring to seize fowls or meat that was hung on the mainstay, always alighting on the point she sprang from. At other times she would attempt ...
— Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2 • John Lort Stokes

... sea air and groped his way forward. Far astern the wreck burned fiercely, bringing into bold relief the frowning peaks which fringed the shore-line of El Diablo. As he caught at the rail for support he saw the flames leap skyward, blackened by smoke and bits of timber. The waves burned brightly about the settling hull. Then came the sound of the explosion of ...
— El Diablo • Brayton Norton

... to refrain from going to his father's house in Richmond when he reached London. His father's parting words lingered unpleasantly in his mind to serve as a warning against the folly of that course. The same unusual prudence compelled him to leap out of a taxi-cab as soon as he had leapt into it. For himself he did not care, but he had to be careful for Sisily's sake. So he clambered on top of a 'bus with his suit case. The same sobering feeling of responsibility ...
— The Moon Rock • Arthur J. Rees

... in silence a moment, then in a tone that made her heart leap and her blood tingle, he ...
— Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise • David Graham Phillips

... The noise of the struggle was over; the horrible sights were left behind. My spirit sprang up as if I had been born into new life. It had the same effect, I suppose, upon my companion, though he was much weaker than I, for he rose to his feet at once with almost a leap of eagerness, and turned instantaneously towards the other ...
— The Little Pilgrim: Further Experiences. - Stories of the Seen and the Unseen. • Margaret O. (Wilson) Oliphant

... modest rather than the forward, one of the thoughtful rather than of the thoughtless and inconsiderate?" Certainly," replied Xenophon. "You must now, then, think him extremely headstrong and daring; one who would even spring upon drawn swords, and leap into the fire." "And what," said Xenophon, "have you seen him doing, that you form this opinion of him?" "Why, has he not dared," rejoined Socrates, "to kiss the son of Alcibiades, a youth extremely handsome, and in the flower of his age?" "If such a deed," returned Xenophon, "is one ...
— The Journal of Abnormal Psychology - Volume 10

... and when passing through some tall "lalang" grass a tiger suddenly sprang out into the path a few yards in front of him. The priest, with great presence of mind, suddenly opened his Chinese umbrella in the face of the tiger; the animal gave a leap round to one side, and the priest repeated the umbrella movement. The tiger then gave another leap round to the other side, and the umbrella action was again performed. This was renewed till the tiger, who evidently was not hungry, and had taken alarm, made a disappointed ...
— Prisoners Their Own Warders - A Record of the Convict Prison at Singapore in the Straits - Settlements Established 1825 • J. F. A. McNair

... was always sensible that his abjuration would expose him to great dangers, which made him write in this manner to Mademoiselle d'Estrees: "On Sunday I shall take a dangerous leap. While I am writing to you I have a hundred troublesome people about me, which makes me detest St. Denis as much as you ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 1-20 • Various

... forequarters clear of the ground, and his forefeet come down with a sounding crack on the hard floor. There is nothing left for the fighter to do but run, and he vaults the barrier into the corridor beyond. The bull frequently gathers so much impetus in following at the runner's heels, that he too must leap the fence—a goodly jump for a bull—about five feet. Then follows a wild scramble of corpulent policemen, sweetmeat-sellers, water-carriers, and so forth, and they scuffle heavily over the barrier into the deserted ring. ...
— The Harmsworth Magazine, v. 1, 1898-1899, No. 2 • Various

... grave, alert, amused, none other than the Senor d'Aguilar. She uttered a little stifled scream, while Peter, with the impulse that causes a brave and startled hound to rush at that which frightens it, gave a leap forward towards the Spaniard. ...
— Fair Margaret • H. Rider Haggard

... foreign lands boasted very much, on returning to his own country, of the many wonderful and heroic feats he had performed in the different places he had visited. Among other things, he said that when he was at Rhodes he had leaped to such a distance that no man of his day could leap anywhere near him as to that, there were in Rhodes many persons who saw him do it and whom he could call as witnesses. One of the bystanders interrupted him, saying: "Now, my good man, if this be all true there is no need ...
— Aesop's Fables • Aesop

... the invisible children had to leap back, or she would have felt them; and to feel what you can't see is the worst sort of ghost-feeling. Mother picked up the Lamb and hurried away from ...
— The Phoenix and the Carpet • E. Nesbit

... Mary,—are you critic-bitten (For vipers kill, though dead) by some review, That you condemn these verses I have written, Because they tell no story, false or true? What, though no mice are caught by a young kitten, 5 May it not leap and play as grown cats do, Till its claws come? Prithee, for this one time, Content ...
— The Witch of Atlas • Percy Bysshe Shelley

... gave a frightened leap. "Oh no—no—not a bit!" she said hastily, looking longingly across the pond at the group around the fire. Jerry caught his breath with a gasp and gripped her hands hard. "It makes me crazy to see you look at another fellow," he said. He forced ...
— The Bent Twig • Dorothy Canfield

... the long black land; And the yellow half-moon large and low; And the startled little waves that leap In fiery ringlets from their sleep, As I gain the cove with pushing prow, And quench its speed ...
— The Gate of Appreciation - Studies in the Relation of Art to Life • Carleton Noyes

... like a bow that is being drawn, and a swift leap landed her right on the perch. The parrot, seeing the danger upon him, unexpectedly called out in a deep, sonorous bass voice: "Have ...
— My Private Menagerie - from The Works of Theophile Gautier Volume 19 • Theophile Gautier

... were, into flame and movement at the swift sound and cadence of the words, like a dancer kindled by music. The occasion was of the slightest; the Frenchwoman might well show a natural bewilderment. But into the slight occasion the girl threw an animation, a passion, that glorified it. It was like the leap of a wild rain-stream on the mountains, that pours into the first channel which ...
— The Marriage of William Ashe • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... 1814.—A pug was accustomed to howl frequently when his young master played on the flute. If the higher notes were sounded, he would leap on his master's lap, look in his face, and howl vehemently. To-day the young man purposely blew the shrillest sound that he could. The dog, after howling three or four times, began to run round the room, and over ...
— The Dog - A nineteenth-century dog-lovers' manual, - a combination of the essential and the esoteric. • William Youatt

... know that this is Leap Year? Do you begin to feel the glorious flood of liberty which it lets in upon the female women of this country? As a society and as individuals, let us press forward to the mark of the prize—I ...
— Phemie Frost's Experiences • Ann S. Stephens

... ultimately, quite a mad hope to desire to convert "the Spirit that Denies." He, too, under the Lord, is an accomplice of the Life-stream. He helps it forward, even while he opposes himself to it, just as a bulwark of submerged rocks make the tide leap landward with ...
— Visions and Revisions - A Book of Literary Devotions • John Cowper Powys

... leap beyond the stone which they had thrown, but ever to their dismay the knights saw this marvelous maiden ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 2 (of 12) • Various

... "Just my own idea! My children and I will remain in our home and take what comes, rather than leap from the frying-pan into the fire as so many are doing. If every one runs away, there will be no Rheims at all." Then to Pierre and Pierrette she said "Choose, each of you. What shall we buy ...
— The French Twins • Lucy Fitch Perkins

... you and distant hearts thrilling through yours. No gnawing disease can bring such hideous end as this; for that is a fiend bred of your own flesh, and this—is it a fiend, this living lump of appetites? What dread comes with the thought of perishing in flames! but fire, let it leap and hiss never so hotly, is something too remote, too alien, to inspire us with such loathly horror as a wild beast; if it have a life, that life is too utterly beyond our comprehension. Fire is not half ourselves; as it devours, arouses neither hatred nor disgust; is not ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 31, May, 1860 • Various

... on our fishing ground, the salmon were seen springing two or three feet out of the water into the air, a sign not always good for the sportsman; for the Norwegians say, that when the fish begin to leap out of the water, they are moving up the river, and disinclined to take food. It was entertaining to observe them, as they leaped in various places, from rock to rock, up the stream of the Foss; and although they would be brought ...
— A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden - 2nd edition • W. A. Ross

... was not ignorant of these difficulties, had prevailed [? availed] himself of all advantages; as he who designs a large leap, takes his rise ...
— An English Garner - Critical Essays & Literary Fragments • Edited by Professor Arber and Thomas Seccombe

... gorge was a sudden break in the cliffs, below which roared the mountain stream. The bold girl resolved to leap from the rock on the one side to the opposite rock. She was determined that Lightning Speed would and should obey her, for did not he love her, ...
— Hollyhock - A Spirit of Mischief • L. T. Meade

... the air like a loose, distorted piece of statuary, blown from its pedestal by some gigantic disturbance. He appeared to buckle in his mid-air leap like a bended thing of metal, then dropped to the earth, stiff-legged as an iron image, to bound up again with mad and furious gyrations that seemed to the girl to twist both horse and rider into one live ...
— The Furnace of Gold • Philip Verrill Mighels

... and took my departure, "thinking furiously," as the Frenchman says. That there was a tragedy pending I was sure; this weather was too calm to last; the water ran so still because it was preparing to leap down some hidden precipice. ...
— Child of Storm • H. Rider Haggard

... prance we, prance we, So merrily let us dance ey, so merrily, &c. And I can dance it gingerly, and I, &c. And I can foot it by and by, and I, &c. And I can prank it properly, And I can countenance comely,[25] And I can croak it courtesly, And I can leap it lustily, And I can turn it trimly, And I can frisk it freshly, And I can look it lordly. IGN. I can thee thank, Sensual Appetite! That is the best dance without a pipe, That I saw this seven year.[26] HU. This dance would do mich better yet, If we had a kit or taberet, But alas! ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume I. • R. Dodsley

... up to the roof; it is a leap of the soul to the sunrise. The morning mist rests lightly on chimneys and roofs and walls, wreathes the lamp-posts, and floats in gauzy streamers down the streets. Distant buildings are massed ...
— The Promised Land • Mary Antin

... a great leap. With that swift intuition of which only a woman is capable her mind leapt to its conclusion. There was only one person in the world besides herself whom Paul loved dearly, and that was ...
— The Day of Judgment • Joseph Hocking

... sea; and when the billowing fields and neat hedges changed to chalky downs, a sudden whiff of salt on the air blowing through a half-open window made her heart leap. She nearly cried, "The sea!" but controlled herself ...
— The Guests Of Hercules • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... they yielded, were almost all hanged. Thus they did at the city of Matiscon; counting it sport to cut off their arms and legs and afterward kill them; and for the entertainment of their visiters, they often threw the protestants from a high bridge into the river, saying, "Did you ever see men leap so well?" ...
— Fox's Book of Martyrs - Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant - Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs • John Fox

... dare!" cried Denny, and, making a leap forward he snatched from Kelly's hands the precious documents that had so strangely come from the secret hiding place ...
— The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay - The Secret of the Red Oar • Margaret Penrose

... moment's hesitation, Nigg hurled a Mills grenade straight through the loophole, and then with one wild screech of "Come away, boys!" took a flying leap over the parapet—and landed in his own trench, in ...
— All In It K(1) Carries On - A Continuation of the First Hundred Thousand • John Hay Beith (AKA: Ian Hay)

... approached within fifteen or twenty paces of the lines; but the men being all at their posts and ready to receive it, commenced so heavy and galling a fire as to throw the column a little into confusion. Being quickly rallied, it advanced to the outer works and began to leap into the ditch. Just at that moment a fire of grape was opened from our six pounder (which had been previously arranged so as to rake in that direction), which, together with the musketry, threw them into such confusion, that they were compelled to retire precipitately ...
— The Medallic History of the United States of America 1776-1876 • J. F. Loubat

... With one leap I was on his back, and with a blow from the revolver I had quieted him, wrenched the knife from his hand, and had the point resting ...
— Blindfolded • Earle Ashley Walcott

... heelless shoes were rubber soled, and she was both fearless and alert. And though the last leap was too long for her, for she landed in the shallows with splashing ankles, she had scarcely a down glance for them. Her worried eyes were searching the green uplands ...
— The Innocent Adventuress • Mary Hastings Bradley

... islands and scream in frightening ways when a gale was coming. When the sea-maidens went ashore they sometimes met sailors and fishermen, and if they liked these strangers a frank avowal of love was made; for it is always leap year in the ocean. It was a most uncomfortable position for a mortal to be placed in, especially one who had a wife waiting for him at home, because if their addresses were rejected the mermaids were liable to throw stones, and always with fatal results; ...
— Myths & Legends of our New Possessions & Protectorate • Charles M. Skinner

... had learned, lying in bed and reading when seized, to relax and bend the cramps away without even disturbing his reading. But now he did the thing in reverse, intensifying the cramp, and, to his startled delight, causing it to leap into his right calf. He cried out with anguish, apparently lost control of himself, attempted to sit up, and was washed under by the ...
— On the Makaloa Mat/Island Tales • Jack London

... approached the animals, driving them to the end of the cage, the end of the rod nearly touching their faces. Here they stood under protest, growling. Then he raised his whip, struck the smaller beast, making it run from one end of the cage to the other, and leap over his shoulder in a way familiar to people who have visited a menagerie. He threw it down, put his foot on its prostrate body, and folded his arms in the character of victor. He lay down on it, pulled open its jaws, and inserted his head therein. ...
— The Galaxy, Volume 23, No. 2, February, 1877 • Various

... boat revolted at his weight and capsized. Vandenhuten sank like lead, rose, sank again. My coat and waistcoat were off in an instant; I had not been brought up at Eton and boated and bathed and swam there ten long years for nothing; it was a natural and easy act for me to leap to the rescue. The lads and the boatmen yelled; they thought there would be two deaths by drowning instead of one; but as Jean rose the third time, I clutched him by one leg and the collar, and in three minutes more both he and I were safe landed. To speak heaven's truth, ...
— The Professor • (AKA Charlotte Bronte) Currer Bell

... might by bestriding the ridge of the roof. The strain becomes greater, he feels her weight, she is slipping down, down. Her hands strike a knot; the jerk almost throws him off his balance. He utters a word of caution, lost in the growing roar of the flames whose hungry tongues have begun to leap above the gutter. She looks down, sees the approaching peril, and hastens her descent. He is all astrain, with heart and hand nerved for the awful possibilities of the coming moments when—ping! Something goes whistling ...
— Room Number 3 - and Other Detective Stories • Anna Katharine Green

... and Rachael's husband were on friendly, even intimate, terms; Magsie showed Warren a letter, Warren murmured advice; Magsie reached a confident little brown hand to him from the raft; Warren said, "Be careful, dear!" when she sprang up to leap from the car. Well, said Rachael bravely, no harm in that! Warren was just the big, sweet, simple person to be flattered by Magsie's affection. How could ...
— The Heart of Rachael • Kathleen Norris

... his feet, knife in hand. The water rose scarcely to his knees, and the bottom was hard, so that it was almost the same as if he stood upon dry land. The warrior had not time to recover from the slight shock of his leap, when Tom grasped him by the throat and used his weapon with such effect that it was all over in a ...
— Through Apache Lands • R. H. Jayne

... rights of others. You have no right to erect your toll-gate upon the highways of thought. You have no right to leap from the hedges of superstition and strike down the pioneers of the human race. You have no right to sacrifice the liberties of man upon the altars of ghosts. Believe what you may; preach what you desire; have all the forms and ceremonies you please; exercise ...
— The Ghosts - And Other Lectures • Robert G. Ingersoll

... from the foregoing fairly typical examples, the phenomena of courtship are highly developed, and have been most carefully studied, in animals outside the mammal series. It may seem a long leap from birds to man; yet, as will be seen, the phenomena among primitive human peoples, if not, indeed, among many civilized peoples also, closely resemble those found among birds, though, unfortunately, they have not usually ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... least. I will undertake that when you leave this you shall be au fait at everything. Leap frog is not too heavy for me and spillikins not too light. I am up to them all, from backgammon to a cotillon,—not but what I prefer the cotillon ...
— Mr. Scarborough's Family • Anthony Trollope

... Mount Willard. It is but a walk of two hours up and down, if so much. When reaching the top, he will be startled to find that he looks down into the ravine without an inch of foreground. He will come out suddenly on a ledge of rock, from whence, as it seems, he might leap down at once into the valley below. Then, going on from the Crawford House, he will be driven through the woods of Cherry Mount, passing, I fear without toll of custom, the house of my excellent friend Mr. Plaistead, who keeps a hotel at Jefferson. "Sir," said Mr. Plaistead, ...
— Volume 1 • Anthony Trollope

... advised by him, and so tensely did Saxon watch, that the pain in her finger-tips, crushed to the rock by which she held, warned her to relax. Billy waited his chance, twice made tentative preparations to leap and sank back, then leaped across and down to the momentarily exposed foothold, doubled the corner, and as he clawed up to join Hall was washed to the waist but ...
— The Valley of the Moon • Jack London

... down this sweet saying of her in Grim's commendations. She hath made my heart leap like a hobby-horse! O Joan, this speech of thine will I carry with me even to ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VIII (4th edition) • Various



Words linked to "Leap" :   quantum jump, jump, transition, quantum leap, hop-skip, caper, leap day, elevation, curvet, skip, bound, rebound, switch, shift, resile, ricochet, recoil, reverberate, leaping, overleap, pronk, saltate, move, take a hop, hop, capriole, leapfrog, increase, bounce, leap second, galumph, spring, jump off, leap year, leap out, change, distance, pounce, vault



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