leapfrog
/ˈliːpfɹɑɡ/
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.57 in modern English
Meaning
noun
A game, often played by children, in which a player leaps like a frog over the back of another person who has stooped over. One variation of the game involves a number of people lining up in a row and bending over. The last person in the line then vaults forward over each of the others until they reach the front of the line, whereupon they also bend over. The process is then repeated.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The process by which a case is appealed or allowed to be appealed directly to a supreme court, bypassing an intermediate appellate court.
British usage; Countable; Uncountable
verb
To appeal or allow to be appealed (a case) directly to a supreme court, bypassing an intermediate appellate court.
British usage; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "La Poſte (jeu d'Enfant) Skip-frog, or Leap-frog, a Boyiſh Play."
- "Are they [female students] not, indeed, generally wanting in that power of healthy stimulation which, exerted at proper intervals and sustained for proper periods, at once develops the mental powers, and sends forth the young boy-student from his Greek construing and his Latin hexameters to his leap-frog and cricket, with a zeal and an energy which he will never feel again when the school-room door has finally closed on him?"
- "Madame could read with native grace and commendable fluency, making nimble leapfrogs over the heads of the exceptionally hard passages, but Leam had to spell every third word, and then she made a mess of it."
- "The Supreme Court can hear appeals direct from the High Court under the ‘leapfrog’ procedure. This procedure is reserved for matters certified by the Supreme Court to be of general public importance—the type of issue which would ultimately be appealed from the Court of Appeal in any event. There are normally a few of these direct appeals from the High Court each year."
- "An appeal to the Court of Cassation can be filed against judgments issued on (first) appeal, which means judgments issued in general by a court of appeals, even though the Code provides for judgments issued by courts of first instance that can be reviewed by the Court of Cassation through a sort of ‘leapfrog’ appeal; […]"
- "Zachary Black jumps out from behind a bush. My heart leapfrogs up my throat, climbs out of my mouth and scarpers down the street."
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈliːpfɹɑɡ/
- British English: /ˈliːpfɹɒɡ/