Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A game in which one player kneels or bends over while the next in line leaps over him or her.
  • intransitive verb To jump over (someone) in leapfrog.
  • intransitive verb To advance or progress beyond (a competitor or an obstacle, for example) in dramatic fashion.
  • intransitive verb To advance (two military units) by engaging one with the enemy while moving the other to a position forward of the first unit.
  • intransitive verb To move forward in leapfrog.
  • intransitive verb To move or progress in a discontinuous way.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A boys' game in which one player places his hands on the back or shoulders of another who has assumed a stooping posture, and leaps or vaults over his head.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A play among boys, in which one stoops down and another leaps over him by placing his hands on the shoulders of the former.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun games A children's game in which players vault over each other's stooped backs.
  • verb transitive To jump over some obstacle as in leapfrog.
  • verb transitive To overtake
  • verb transitive (military) To advance by engaging enemy with one unit while the other moves further forward.
  • verb intransitive To progress as in leapfrog.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun advancing as if in the child's game, by leaping over obstacles or competitors
  • verb progress by large jumps instead of small increments
  • verb jump across
  • noun a game in which one child bends down and another leaps over

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The first rider -- rider A -- is on the road, and three others are in what we call a "leapfrog car."

    Riva Greenberg: Want a Diabetes Hero in Your Town? Meet Phil Southerland Riva Greenberg 2011

  • It's called the leapfrog tick tock similar to the other phones that we tested for kids.

    CNN Transcript Feb 4, 2006 2006

  • While the 46-year-old condemns the violence as a tragedy, his concern is for the future and the impact of the government's 10bn yuan pledge to ensure stability in the region through rapid, "leapfrog", economic development.

    Xinjiang riots: one year on, Uighur and Han fears still run deep 2010

  • The news isn't good, he concedes, but the team has a strategy: sacrifice Microsoft's leading market position in Europe, the better to improve Money (and eventually "leapfrog" Intuit) at home.

    Culture Club 2008

  • New technology has allowed Democrats to "leapfrog" to e-mail solicitations and other online fundraising rather than develop a mailing list, Malbin says.

    Parties pour 11th-hour cash into close races 2006

  • Jugar a la pidola--That's "leapfrog" to you, David Beckham.

    Real Madrid's Income Beats Glazer's Man Utd 2006

  • UNESCO, in its report of the meeting of the Economic Commission for Africa held in Addis Ababa in May 1996, pointed out that technological innovations "have combined with changes facing global and national telecommunication regimes to present a clear window of opportunity for appropriate" leapfrog "strategies to accelerate the development of the continent".

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1998

  • InfoDev enables the poorest countries to "leapfrog" from no technology to innovative technology in a way that offers "real possibilities for lifting living standards" and creating jobs, Bond told a news conference after a meeting of donors.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1997

  • New information and communications technologies, will become increasingly affordable as costs fall, thus helping developing nations "leapfrog" stages of development in setting up their own infrastructure.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1996

  • The gardener must also go through all of the movements performed by the scamp, who may jump "leapfrog" over any player in the circle, turn somersaults, crawl between the legs of a circle player, double unexpectedly on his path, circle around one of the players, or resort to any other device for making the chase difficult.

    Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium Jessie Hubbell Bancroft

Comments

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  • The game was well-known in Shakespeare's day, but he was the first to call it by its current name.

    Henry V, Act 5, Scene 2:

    "If I could win a lady at leapfrog...I should quickly leap into a wife."

    September 2, 2009