overleap

English

Etymology

From Middle English overlepen, from Old English oferhlēapan, equivalent to over- + leap. Compare Dutch overlopen (to spill over; overflow), German überlaufen (to overrun; overflow).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /əʊvəˈliːp/

Verb

overleap (third-person singular simple present overleaps, present participle overleaping, simple past and past participle overleaped or overleapt)

  1. (transitive) To leap over, to jump over, to cross by jumping. [from 8th c.]
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.7:
      Nor hedge, nor ditch, nor hill, nor dale she staies, / But overleapes them all, like Robucke light […].
  2. (transitive) To pass over; to omit, leave out. [from 10th c.]
    • 2012, Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers, Penguin 2013, p. 141:
      It should be noted that even modest German efforts to overleap the power-political constraints on imperial expansion met with sturdy resistance form the established world powers.
  3. (dated, reflexive) To make too much effort in leaping; to leap too far.
    I overleapt myself and stumbled.

References

  • overleap in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
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