Leap vs. Spring: What's the Difference?
Leap and Spring Definitions
Leap
To propel oneself quickly upward or a long way; spring or jump
The goat leaped over the wall. The salmon leapt across the barrier.
Spring
To move upward or forward in a single quick motion or a series of such motions; leap
The goat sprang over the log.
Leap
To move quickly or suddenly
Leaped out of his chair to answer the door.
Spring
To move suddenly, especially because of being resilient or moved by a spring
I let the branch spring forward. The door sprang shut.
Leap
To change quickly or abruptly from one condition or subject to another
Always leaping to conclusions.
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Spring
To start doing something suddenly
The firefighters sprang into action.
Leap
To act quickly or impulsively
Leaped at the opportunity to travel.
Spring
To appear or come into being quickly
New businesses are springing up rapidly.
Leap
To enter eagerly into an activity; plunge
Leapt into the project with both feet.
Spring
To issue or emerge suddenly
A cry sprang from her lips. A thought springs to mind.
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Leap
To propel oneself over
I couldn't leap the brook.
Spring
To arise from a source; develop
Their frustration springs from a misunderstanding.
Leap
To cause to leap
She leapt her horse over the hurdle.
Spring
(intransitive) To burst forth.
Leap
The act of leaping; a jump.
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Spring
(of liquids) To gush, to flow suddenly and violently.
The boat sprang a leak and began to sink.
Leap
A place jumped over or from.
Spring
To gush, to flow out of the ground.
Leap
The distance cleared in a leap.
Spring
(of light) To appear, to dawn.
Leap
An abrupt or precipitous passage, shift, or transition
A leap from rags to riches.
Spring
(of plants) To sprout, to grow,
Leap
(intransitive) To jump.
Spring
(now chiefly botanical) To grow taller or longer.
Leap
(transitive) To pass over by a leap or jump.
To leap a wall or a ditch
Spring
To rise from cover.
Leap
To copulate with (a female beast)
Spring
(of landscape) To come dramatically into view.
Leap
To copulate with (a human)
Spring
(figurative) to arise, to come into existence.
Hope springs eternal.
He hit the gas and the car sprang to life.
Leap
(transitive) To cause to leap.
To leap a horse across a ditch
Spring
To move with great speed and energy; to leap, to jump; to dart, to sprint; of people: to rise rapidly from a seat, bed, etc.
Deer spring with their hind legs, using their front hooves to steady themselves.
He sprang to his feet.
A bow, when bent, springs back by its elastic power.
Don't worry. She'll spring back to her cheerful old self in no time.
It was the first thing that sprang to mind.
She sprang to her husband's defense and clocked the protestor.
Leap
The act of leaping or jumping.
He made a leap across the river.
Spring
(usually with from) To be born, descend, or originate from
He sprang from peasant stock.
Leap
The distance traversed by a leap or jump.
Spring
To descend or originate from.
The Stoics sprang from the Cynics.
Leap
A group of leopards.
Spring
(obsolete) To rise in social position or military rank, to be promoted.
Leap
(figuratively) A significant move forward.
Spring
To become known, to spread.
Leap
(figuratively) A large step in reasoning, often one that is not justified by the facts.
It's quite a leap to claim that those cloud formations are evidence of UFOs.
Spring
To emit, to spread.
Leap
(mining) A fault.
Spring
To grow.
Leap
Copulation with, or coverture of, a female beast.
Spring
(transitive) To cause to burst forth.
Leap
(music) A passing from one note to another by an interval, especially by a long one, or by one including several other intermediate intervals.
Spring
To cause to well up or flow out of the ground.
Leap
A salmon ladder.
Spring
To bring forth.
Leap
A trap or snare for fish, made from twigs; a weely.
Spring
To cause to become known, to tell of.
Leap
Half a bushel.
Spring
To cause to move energetically; (equestrianism) to cause to gallop, to spur.
Leap
(calendar) Intercalary, bissextile.
Spring
To cause to rise from cover.
His dogs sprang the grouse and partridges and flushed the woodcock.
Leap
A basket.
Spring
To shift quickly from one designated position to another.
Leap
A weel or wicker trap for fish.
Spring
To breed with, to impregnate.
Leap
The act of leaping, or the space passed by leaping; a jump; a spring; a bound.
Wickedness comes on by degrees, . . . and sudden leaps from one extreme to another are unnatural.
Changes of tone may proceed either by leaps or glides.
Spring
(of mechanisms) To cause to work or open by sudden application of pressure.
He sprang the trap.
Leap
Copulation with, or coverture of, a female beast.
Spring
To make wet, to moisten.
Leap
A fault.
Spring
To rise suddenly, (of tears) to well up.
The documentary made tears spring to their eyes.
Leap
A passing from one note to another by an interval, especially by a long one, or by one including several other and intermediate intervals.
Spring
To burst into pieces, to explode, to shatter.
Leap
To spring clear of the ground, with the feet; to jump; to vault; as, a man leaps over a fence, or leaps upon a horse.
Leap in with me into this angry flood.
Spring
To go off.
Leap
To spring or move suddenly, as by a jump or by jumps; to bound; to move swiftly. Also Fig.
My heart leaps up when I beholdA rainbow in the sky.
Spring
To cause to explode, to set off, to detonate.
Leap
To pass over by a leap or jump; as, to leap a wall, or a ditch.
Spring
To crack.
Leap
To copulate with (a female beast); to cover.
Spring
To have something crack.
Leap
To cause to leap; as, to leap a horse across a ditch.
Spring
To cause to crack.
Leap
A light springing movement upwards or forwards
Spring
To surprise by sudden or deft action.
Leap
An abrupt transition;
A successful leap from college to the major leagues
Spring
To come upon and flush out
Leap
A sudden and decisive increase;
A jump in attendance
Spring
To catch in an illegal act or compromising position.
Leap
The distance leaped (or to be leaped);
A leap of 10 feet
Spring
(obsolete) To begin something.
Leap
Move forward by leaps and bounds;
The horse bounded across the meadow
The child leapt across the puddle
Can you jump over the fence?
Spring
(obsolete) To produce, provide, or place an item unexpectedly.
Leap
Pass abruptly from one state or topic to another;
Leap into fame
Jump to a conclusion
Spring
To put bad money into circulation.
Leap
Cause to jump or leap;
The trainer jumped the tiger through the hoop
Spring
To tell, to share.
Spring
(of news, surprises) To announce unexpectedly, to reveal.
Sorry to spring it on you like this but I've been offered another job.
Spring
To free from imprisonment, especially by facilitating an illegal escape.
His lieutenants hired a team of miners to help spring him.
Spring
To be free of imprisonment, especially by illegal escape.
Spring
To build, to form the initial curve of.
They sprung an arch over the lintel.
Spring
To extend, to curve.
The arches spring from the front posts.
Spring
To turn a vessel using a spring attached to its anchor cable.
Spring
To raise a vessel's sheer.
Spring
To raise a last's toe.
Spring
(transitive) To pay or spend a certain sum, to cough up.
Spring
To raise an offered price.
Spring
To act as a spring: to strongly rebound.
Spring
To equip with springs, especially to equip with a suspension.
Spring
To provide spring or elasticity
Spring
To inspire, to motivate.
Spring
(ambitransitive) To deform owing to excessive pressure, to become warped; to intentionally deform in order to position and then straighten in place.
A piece of timber sometimes springs in seasoning.
He sprang in the slat.
Spring
To reach maturity, to be fully grown.
Spring
To swell with milk or pregnancy.
Spring
To sound, to play.
Spring
(intransitive) To spend the springtime somewhere
Spring
(of animals) to find or get enough food during springtime.
Spring
(countable) An act of springing: a leap, a jump.
Spring
(countable) The season of the year in temperate regions in which plants spring from the ground and into bloom and dormant animals spring to life.
Spring is the time of the year most species reproduce.
You can visit me in the spring, when the weather is bearable.
Spring
(astronomy) The period from the moment of vernal equinox (around March 21 in the Northern Hemisphere) to the moment of the summer solstice (around June 21); the equivalent periods reckoned in other cultures and calendars.
Spring Festival" throughout East Asia because it is reckoned as the beginning of their spring.
Spring
(meteorology) The three months of March, April, and May in the Northern Hemisphere and September, October, and November in the Southern Hemisphere.
I spent my spring holidays in Morocco.
The spring issue will be out next week.
Spring
The time of something's growth; the early stages of some process.
Spring
A period of political liberalization and democratization
Arab Spring
Spring
Someone with ivory or peach skin tone and eyes and hair that are not extremely dark, seen as best suited to certain colors of clothing.
Spring
(countable) Something which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly
Spring
(geology) A spray or body of water springing from the ground.
This beer was brewed with pure spring water.
Spring
The rising of the sea at high tide.
Spring
(oceanography) nodot=a, the especially high tide shortly after full and new moons.
Neap tide
Spring
A mechanical device made of flexible or coiled material that exerts force and attempts to spring back when bent, compressed, or stretched.
We jumped so hard the bed springs broke.
Spring
(nautical) A line from a vessel's end or side to its anchor cable used to diminish or control its movement.
Spring
(nautical) A line laid out from a vessel's end to the opposite end of an adjacent vessel or mooring to diminish or control its movement.
You should put a couple of springs onto the jetty to stop the boat moving so much.
Spring
(figurative) A race, a lineage.
Spring
(figurative) A youth.
Spring
A shoot, a young tree.
Spring
A grove of trees; a forest.
Spring
An erection of the penis. en
Spring
A crack which has sprung up in a mast, spar, or (rare) a plank or seam.
Spring
(uncountable) Springiness: an attribute or quality of springing, springing up, or springing back, particularly
Spring
Elasticity: the property of a body springing back to its original form after compression, stretching, etc.
The spring of a bow
Spring
Elastic energy, power, or force.
Spring
(countable) The source from which an action or supply of something springs.
Spring
(countable) Something which causes others or another to spring forth or spring into action, particularly
Spring
A cause, a motive, etc.
Spring
(obsolete) A lively piece of music.
Spring
To leap; to bound; to jump.
The mountain stag that springsFrom height to height, and bounds along the plains.
Spring
To issue with speed and violence; to move with activity; to dart; to shoot.
And sudden lightSprung through the vaulted roof.
Spring
To start or rise suddenly, as from a covert.
Watchful as fowlers when their game will spring.
Spring
To fly back; as, a bow, when bent, springs back by its elastic power.
Spring
To bend from a straight direction or plane surface; to become warped; as, a piece of timber, or a plank, sometimes springs in seasoning.
Spring
To shoot up, out, or forth; to come to the light; to begin to appear; to emerge; as a plant from its seed, as streams from their source, and the like; - often followed by up, forth, or out.
Till well nigh the day began to spring.
To satisfy the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth.
Do not blast my springing hopes.
O, spring to light; auspicious Babe, be born.
Spring
To issue or proceed, as from a parent or ancestor; to result, as from a cause, motive, reason, or principle.
[They found] new hope to springOut of despair, joy, but with fear yet linked.
Spring
To grow; to thrive; to prosper.
What makes all this, but Jupiter the king,At whose command we perish, and we spring?
Spring
To cause to spring up; to start or rouse, as game; to cause to rise from the earth, or from a covert; as, to spring a pheasant.
Spring
To produce or disclose suddenly or unexpectedly; as, to spring a surprise on someone; to spring a joke.
She starts, and leaves her bed, and springs a light.
The friends to the cause sprang a new project.
Spring
To cause to explode; as, to spring a mine.
Spring
To crack or split; to bend or strain so as to weaken; as, to spring a mast or a yard.
Spring
To cause to close suddenly, as the parts of a trap operated by a spring; as, to spring a trap.
Spring
To bend by force, as something stiff or strong; to force or put by bending, as a beam into its sockets, and allowing it to straighten when in place; - often with in, out, etc.; as, to spring in a slat or a bar.
Spring
To pass over by leaping; as, to spring a fence.
Spring
To release (a person) from confinement, especially from a prison.
Spring
A leap; a bound; a jump.
The prisoner, with a spring, from prison broke.
Spring
A flying back; the resilience of a body recovering its former state by its elasticity; as, the spring of a bow.
Spring
Elastic power or force.
Heavens! what a spring was in his arm!
Spring
An elastic body of any kind, as steel, India rubber, tough wood, or compressed air, used for various mechanical purposes, as receiving and imparting power, diminishing concussion, regulating motion, measuring weight or other force.
Spring
Any source of supply; especially, the source from which a stream proceeds; an issue of water from the earth; a natural fountain.
Spring
Any active power; that by which action, or motion, is produced or propagated; cause; origin; motive.
Our author shuns by vulgar springs to moveThe hero's glory, or the virgin's love.
Spring
That which springs, or is originated, from a source;
Spring
That which causes one to spring; specifically, a lively tune.
Spring
The season of the year when plants begin to vegetate and grow; the vernal season, usually comprehending the months of March, April, and May, in the middle latitudes north of the equator.
Spring
The time of growth and progress; early portion; first stage; as, the spring of life.
O how this spring of love resemblethThe uncertain glory of an April day.
Spring
A crack or fissure in a mast or yard, running obliquely or transversely.
Spring
The season of growth;
The emerging buds were a sure sign of spring
He will hold office until the spring of next year
Spring
A natural flow of ground water
Spring
A metal elastic device that returns to its shape or position when pushed or pulled or pressed;
The spring was broken
Spring
A light springing movement upwards or forwards
Spring
The elasticity of something that can be stretched and returns to its original length
Spring
A point at which water issues forth
Spring
Move forward by leaps and bounds;
The horse bounded across the meadow
The child leapt across the puddle
Can you jump over the fence?
Spring
Develop into a distinctive entity;
Our plans began to take shape
Spring
Spring back; spring away from an impact;
The rubber ball bounced
These particles do not resile but they unite after they collide
Spring
Produce or disclose suddenly or unexpectedly;
He sprang a new haircut on his wife
Spring
Develop suddenly;
The tire sprang a leak
Spring
Produce or disclose suddenly or unexpectedly;
He sprang these news on me just as I was leaving
