Word.ws English Dictionary

by starts and leaps

by starts and leaps prepositional phrase: in sudden short bursts; without being tidy and regular.

Prepositional phrase

  1. In sudden short bursts; without being tidy and regular.
    • Nature does nothing by starts and leaps, or in a hurry.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC

Forms of by starts and leaps

alternative formby leaps and starts

Questions about by starts and leaps

What does by starts and leaps mean?
By starts and leaps means in sudden short bursts; without being tidy and regular.
What part of speech is by starts and leaps?
By starts and leaps is a prepositional phrase.

Words near by starts and leaps in the dictionary

  1. by right of
  2. by rights
  3. by sail
  4. by sight
  5. by some distance
  6. by starts and leaps
  7. by steam
  8. by the book
  9. by the by
  10. by the bye
  11. by the day

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: by starts and leaps (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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