The word leap goes back to Old English and Germanic languages that came before. It means to jump, to spring, or to bound from the ground and go into the air.
Today the word is used this way often ("try to leap over that hole in the ground"), but it is also used figuratively.
For instance, look at these sentences:
→ My new apartment was a leap above the small place where I used to live.
→ Her aunt's cooking was leaps and bounds better than the food Janet was used to.
For the English language, it was an easy leap (jump) from the original meaning to new ones as people created these idioms.
As a result, this old word, both as a verb and as a noun, has jumped into numerous English idioms, and it has even leaped (or leapt) into textbooks of English students worldwide.
Note: Both leaped and leapt are correct as the past tense and past participle or the verb leap.
Here are a few English idioms that should leap from the page (stand out) and improve your English by leaps and bounds.
• look before you leap, v. phr. To think about
what might happen before you do something. This phrase comes from an Aesop
fable.
→ You want to miss work tomorrow to go fishing? You’d better look before you leap. The boss will be angry.
• by leaps and bounds, adv. phr. Quickly, progressing suddenly.
→ The number of students in our school has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years.
• quantum leap, n. phr. A sudden increase or improvement. This idiom originally was “quantum jump” and comes from physics.
→ The new drug was a quantum leap in the fight against cancer.
• leap in the dark, n. phr. Something you do without knowing what might happen.
→ I got a job offer in New York, but moving that far would be a real leap in the dark. I’m not sure I should take it.
• leap of faith, n. phr. Belief of trust in something that cannot be proved. This idiom goes back to at least the 1850s.
→ It took a leap of faith to believe Harry would be a capable manager.
• leap at the chance, v. phr. To quickly accept an opportunity, to gladly agree to do something. The phrasal verb leap at can be used alone.
→ She leaped at the opportunity to work at the company.
→ I would leap at the chance to study in Paris.
• a leap up (from), n. phr. A big improvement, a better situation. Leap here is used to mean “jump,” and up shows a positive direction.
→ My new apartment is small, but it’s a leap up from the place I lived in for years.
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