1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, Saltatio, daunsyng, iumpyng.
1568. Bible (Bishops’), Nahum iii. 2. The praunsing of horses and the iumping of charrets.
1699. Bentley, Phal., 190. There was either a strange jumping of good Wits, or Democritus was a sorry Plagiary.
1889. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 25 April, 73. An organized and systematic ‘jumping’ of the claims of the men whose title rests on this fraud.
Mod. Newsp. The jumping was exceptionally good.
b. attrib., as jumping-off ground, jumping-off place, a place at which one jumps off from a conveyance or alights at the end of a journey, or from which one jumps off into the region beyond; jumping-powder, a slang name for a stimulant taken by a rider to nerve him for jumping; jumping-sheet, a stout sheet into which persons may jump from a burning building.
1897. Daily News, 24 Feb., 5/5. The strip of territory on the Transvaal border, which Mr. Stead called … the *‘jumping-off ground.’ Ibid. (1900), 21 May, 3/1. To achieve the independence of the Republics, and from that jumping-ground begin anew.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., x. (1856), 70. It is the *jumping-off place of Arctic navigators—our last point of communication with the outside world.
1884. S. E. Dawson, Handbk. Canada, 68. Yarmouth, the jumping-off place of Nova Scotia.
1900. Daily News, 16 Feb., 6/2. If we may borrow a figure from South African politics, the Pamirs are a ‘jumping off place’ for the Russian invaders of Afghanistan and India.
1826. Sporting Mag., XVII. 374. The fences come very quick in Shropshire, and a little *jumping-powder is often found useful.
1858. ‘Scrutator’ [Horlock], Master of Hounds (1864), 91. I have not yet had my glass of jumping powder.
1846. Mechanics’ Mag., XLIV. 228. The canvass escape alluded to … is the *‘jumping sheet’ of the philanthropic Captain Manby.
