c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 480. Ða unstæððiʓan hleapunge þæs mædenes.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xxii. (1495), 781. The wylde gote is … moost lyght in lepynge and moste sharpe in sighte.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 297/1. Lepynge a-wey, fuga.
1529. Supplic. to King (E.E.T.S.), 41. Church ales in the whiche with leappynge, daunsynge, and kyssyng, they maynteyne the profett of their churche.
1611. Florio, Chiarantana, a kind of Caroll or song full of leapings like a Scotish gigge.
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., II. 49. Which way so euer I sought to winde me, was but a leaping out of the Frying Pan into the fire.
1664. Cotton, Scarron., 30. Our Æneas, at two leapings, Set the first foot upon the steppings.
1896. A. E. Housman, Shropshire Lad, liv. By brooks too broad for leaping The lightfoot boys are laid.
b. attrib. and Comb., as leaping-bar, -pole; leaping-head, -horn, the lower pommel on a side-saddle, against which the left knee presses in leaping; a hunting-horn, ‘third crutch’; † leaping house, a brothel; leaping-on-stone, a stone for convenience in mounting a horse; a horse-block; leaping time, the time of activity, youth.
1852. Whately, in Life (1866), II. 260. The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill (commonly called ‘Lord John’s *leaping bar’ to afford exercise in jumping over it).
1881. Mrs. P. O’Donoghue, Ladies on Horseback, i. iii. 35. By … pressing the left knee against the *leaping-head, you can accomplish the rise in your saddle.
1859. Art Taming Horses, ix. 144. In case of a horse ‘bucking,’ without the *leaping-horn there is nothing to prevent a lady from being thrown up. But the leaping-horn holds down the left knee.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. ii. 9. What a diuell hast thou to do with the time of the day? vnlesse houres were cups of Sacke … and dialls the signes of *Leaping-houses.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, II. ii. 63. He immediately trotted to the side of the *leaping-on-stone of which Scott from his lameness found it convenient to make use.
1859. Farrar, Julian Home, xvi. 205. Trying the merits of his alpenstock as a *leaping-pole.
1893. Baring-Gould, Cheap Jack Zita, III. 192. In the Fens, when a man requires to traverse a considerable distance, he provides himself with a leaping-pole.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., IV. ii. 200. To haue turn’d my *leaping time into a Crutch.
