[f. LEAP v. + -ING2.] That leaps († runs, † dances, etc.: see the vb.).
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 482. Herodes swor … ðæt he wolde ðære hleapendan dehter forʓyfan swa hwæt swa heo bæde.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 389. More sutil and sinful þan þis lepynge strumpet [sc. the daughter of Herodias].
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 1460. They luyschene to-gedyres … on leppande stedes.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 12. There is a remedy to quail these wanton leaping beasts [satyrs].
1667. Duchess of Newcastle, in Life Duke N. (1886), II. 101. A grey leaping horse.
1716. Loyal Mourner, 9.
| Whilst twinkling Shoals aloof the Pomp pursue, | |
| And leaping Dolphins catch a distant View. |
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., IV. (1871), 219. A joy as of the leaping fire Over the house-roof rising higher.
b. In the names of various animals, plants, etc., as leaping cucumber = spirting or squirting cucumber (see CUCUMBER 3); leaping-fish, the fish Salarias tridactylus, of Ceylon; so called because it comes on shore and leaps over the wet stones, etc.; (Cape) leaping hare = jumping hare: see JUMPING ppl. a. b; leaping spider, ‘a jumping spider, one of the Saltigradæ’ (W.).
1548–78. *Leaping cucumber [see CUCUMBER 3].
1861. Tennent, Nat. Hist. Ceylon, 495. Index, *Leaping fish.
1849. Mammalia, IV. 44. The *leaping hare equals our common hare in size.
1859. Wood, Nat. Hist., I. 588. The Spring Haas, or Cape Gerboa, sometimes called, from its hare-like aspect, the Cape Leaping Hare.
c. Leaping ague, † gout (see quots.).
1562. Turner, Baths, 6. This bathe … is good for the leping goute, that runneth from one ioynte to another.
1792. Statist. Acc. Scotl., IV. 5. A distemper called by the country-people the leaping-ague, and by physicians, St. Vitus’s dance.
1806. Forsyth, Beauties Scotl., IV. 375. In the mountainous part of Angus a singular disease, called there the leaping ague, is said to exist, bearing a resemblance to St. Vitus’s dance.
Hence Leapingly adv., by leaps.
1548. Elyot, Dict. Assultim, leapyngly, iumpyngly.
