leap, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

leap v.

[SE leap, of an animal, to copulate]

to have sexual intercourse with; thus occas. use as n.

1519		J. Rastell The Four Elements line 1342: sensuall appetyte And I can lepe it lustily.
1599		Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing V iv: Bull Jove, sir, had an amiable cow; And some such strange bull leap’d your father’s cow, And got a calf in that same noble feat, Much like to you, for you have just his bleat.
1610		Beaumont & Fletcher Scornful Lady III ii: You old he-goat, you dried ape, you lame stallion, Must you be leaping in my house? your whores, Like fairies dance their night-rounds, without fear.
[1614		Jonson Bartholomew Fair IV iv: How now, Whit? Close vapours, stealing your leaps? Covering in corners, ha?].
1616		Webster Duchess of Malfi II v: Till I know who leaps my sister, I’ll not stir .
1633		J. Shirley Bird in a Cage III i: [He is] a very satyr, he leaps all comes near him.
1658		Mennis & Smith ‘The Bursse of Reformation’ Wit Restor’d (1817) 141: Here are hot Boyes have backs like bulls, At first sight can leap lasses.
a.1661		‘On the Happy Memory of Alderman Hoyle’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) I 288: And to their Childrens credits and their Wives / Be it still said, they leap fair for their lives.
1668		Etherege She Would if She Cou’d III iii: She’s so bonny and brisk, / How she’d carvet and frisk, / If a man were once mounted upon her! / Let me have but a leap / Where ’tis wholesom and cheap / And a fig for your Person of Honour.
1679		‘Colin’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 25: She knew his ways and could comply / With all decays of lechery; Had often licked his amorous sceptre / Until the jaded stallion leapt her.
1683		London Jilt pt 1 24: The Rumour ran abroad amongst the Lovers of Gallantry that I was ready for the Sport, which made several of them come to our House, to see if they could attain a Leap with me.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 33: But he with full intent to leap her / Swore like a trooper he would keep her.

In compounds

leaping house (n.) [SE house/house n.¹ (1)]

a brothel.

c.1597		Shakespeare Henry IV Pt 1 I ii: Unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the signs of leaping-houses.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 7: [as cit. c.1597].

In phrases

leap in the dark (v.) (also leap up a ladder, take a leap in the dark)

to have sexual intercourse.

1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy V 125: Then leaps in the Dark, and his Exit he makes, / What Death can compare with the jolly Town-Rakes.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 22: Aveugles (loger les). To copulate; ‘to take a leap in the dark’.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 189: To leap up a ladder is for intimacy to take place.

SE in slang uses

In derivatives

leaping (adj.)

(US drugs) under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

1927		‘Sl. Expressions for Drunk’ in New Republic in AS XVI:1 (1941) 70/1: [...] leaping.
1937		B. Dai Opium Addiction in Chicago 201: Leaping. A person who is excessively filled with drugs is said to be leaping.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 143: leapin An addict full of narcotics.
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 312: leapin. An addict who is under the influence of drugs.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 100: Leaping and stinking – Of a drug addict, in the treacherous sorcery of a narcotic ingestion.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 14: Leaping — Under the influence of drugs:.

In compounds

leaping dandruff (n.)

see galloping dandruff under galloping adj.

leaping lena (n.) [its bumpy motion]

(US) a small car, usu. a Model-T Ford.

1926		Judge (NY) 91 July-Dec. 31: Leapin' Lena - Flivver.
1936		M. Levin Old Bunch (1946) 165: Sam heard a terrific honk...and barely jumped aside in time to escape a Leaping Lena.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 672: ca. 1915.

In phrases

leap and you will receive

(US black) a ritual challenge to a fight.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 44: Brother you leap and you will receive.

leap at a crust (v.)

to be starving.

1633		T. Draxe Bibliotheca Scholastica Instructissima 94: Hee will leape at a crust.
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 11: I believe, Colonel, Mr. Neverout can leap at a Crust better than you.
1861		Bath Chron. 21 Nov. 7/5: How many [...] have been fastidious of their diet, which have come to leap at a crust, to beg their bread.

leap at a daisy (v.)

to be hanged [the grass surrounding the gallows].

1575		‘Mr S’ Gammer Gurton’s Needle in Whitworth (1997) V ii: I will go near for this to make ye leap at a daisy.
1592		Greene Blacke Bookes Messenger 2: But at last hee leapt at a daysie for his loose kind of life.

leap at Tyburn (v.) [Tyburn n.]

to be hanged.

c.1600–1662		Common Cries of London in Collier Book of Roxburghe Ballads (1847) 215: For many a proper man... Doth leap a leap at Tyburn which makes his neck to crack .
[1841		Era 26 Sept. 5/3: A new drama [...] ‘Jack Ketch, or a Leap from Tyburn tree,’ was produced].

leap the book (v.)

(Aus.) to marry illegally.

1895

C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 44: Leap the Book, a false marriage.

leap the twig (v.)

see hop the twig v. (2)

In exclamations

leaping lizards! (also leaping catfish! ...tuna!) [coined in the comic strip L’il Orphan Annie by Harold Gray (1894–1968)]

(US) an excl. expressing surprise.

1927		H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 7: Leapin’ Tuna, alongside of this knock-out, Venus D. Milo was a scrub woman!
1957		Laurents & Sondheim West Side Story II ii: My parents treat me rough. [...] They didn’t wanna have me, / But somehow I was had. / Leapin’ lizards, that’s why I’m so bad!
1961		C. Himes Pinktoes (1989) 192: And great leaping catfish! She had gained forty-two pounds.