verb. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms, see GREENS and RIDE. Hence LEAP IN THE DARK (or UP A LADDER) = the act of copulating; copulation. Also TO DO A LEAP.
1599. SHAKESPEARE, Henry V., v. 2. 145. If I could win a lady at leapfrog, or by vaulting into my saddle … I should quickly LEAP into a wife.
1600. SHAKESPEARE, Much Ado about Nothing, v. 4.
| Bene. Bull Jove, Sir, had an amiable low, | |
| And some such strange bull LEAP’D your father’s cow, | |
| And got a calf. |
1614. JONSON, Bartholomew Fair, IV. iii. (CUNNINGHAM, II. 191). Knock. How now, Whit! close vapours, stealing your LEAPS! covering in corners, ha! Idem. Say’st thou so, filly? thou shalt have a LEAP presently, I’ll horse thee myself, else.
1623. WEBSTER, The Duchess of Malfi, ii. 5. Till I know who LEAPS my sister, I’ll not stir.
1662. Rump Songs, i. 289.
| And to their Childrens credits and their Wives | |
| Be it still said, they LEAP fair for their lives. |
1662. J. WILSON, The Cheats, v. 5. Your Daughter has marry’d a Gentleman:—Is not this better, than a Smithfield bargain?—Give me so much money, and my Horse shall LEAP your Mare.
1694. DRYDEN, Virgil, Georgic iii. 328.
| Whether the bull or courser be thy care, | |
| Let him not LEAP the cow, or mount the mare. |
Adv. (old).—All safe.—A New Canting Dictionary (1725).
TO TAKE A LEAP AT TYBURN (or IN THE DARK), verb. phr. (old).—To be hanged.
c. 1600–62. The Common Cries of London [COLLIER, Roxburghe Ballads (1847), 215].
| For many a proper man, | |
| for to supply his lack, | |
| Doth LEAP A LEAP AT TYBURN, | |
| which makes his neck to crack. |
1720. D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, vi., 327.
| All you that must take a LEAP IN THE DARK, | |
| Pity the fate of Lawson and Clark. |
TO LEAP (or JUMP) THE BOOK (or BROOMSTICK, BROOM, BESOM, or SWORD), verb. phr. (common).—See quots.; TO DAB IT UP (q.v.); TO LIVE TALLY. Cf. RUSH-RING.
1811. POOLE, Hamlet Travestie, ii., 3.
| JUMP O’ER A BROOMSTICK, but don’t make a farce on | |
| The marriage ceremonies of the parson. |
1823. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 3rd ed., s.v. LEAPING OVER THE SWORD. An ancient ceremonial, said to constitute a military marriage. A sword being laid down on the ground, the parties to be married join hands, when the corporal or serjeant of the company repeated these words:
| Leap rogue, and jump whore, | |
| And then you are married for evermore. |
1851. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I. p. 336. The old woman when any female, old or young, who had no tin, came into the kitchen, made up a match for her with some men. Fellows half-drunk had the old women. There was always a BROOMSTICK wedding. Without that ceremony a couple weren’t looked on as man and wife.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. LEAP THE BOOK. A false marriage.
1860. DICKENS, Great Expectations, ch. xlviii. p. 227. ‘They both led tramping lives, and this woman in Gerrard St. here, had been married very young, OVER THE BROOMSTICK (as we say), to a tramping man, and was a perfect fury in point of jealousy.’
1888. Cassell’s Magazine, 4 Jan., p. 222. I dare say that most … have laughed at the old joke about getting married by jumping over a broomstick, and have always thought that it was a sheer joke, and nothing else; but this is a great mistake: the ceremony—so to dignify it—of the couple LEAPING OVER A BROOMSTICK, held by the man’s mates a little way from the ground, was the essential and generally recognised rite of most navvy marriages, and was held to be binding so long as both parties were agreed—a very important qualification. There is reason to believe that this grotesque ceremony is of very ancient date.
c. 18(79). Broadside Ballad, ‘David Dove that Fell in Love.’
| The girl that I had hoped to hear | |
| Pronounce my happy doom, sir, | |
| Had bolted with a carpenter, | |
| In fact HOPPED O’ER THE BROOM, sir. |
LET THE BEST DOG LEAP THE STILE FIRST, phr. (old).—Let the worthiest take precedence.
TO LEAP OVER THE HEDGE BEFORE YOU COME AT THE STILE, verb. phr. (old).—To be in a violent hurry.
1670. RAY, Proverbs [BOHN (1893), 168], s.v.
TO BE READY TO LEAP OVER NINE HEDGES, verb. phr. (old).—Exceeding ready.
1767. RAY, Proverbs [BOHN (1893), 168], s.v.
