Word.ws English Dictionary

leapfrog

Syllables: leap·frogUK/ˈliːpfɹɒɡ//ˈliːpfɹɑɡ/

leapfrog 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.

leapfrog: a game, often played by children, in which a player leaps like a frog over the back of another...
Image: Xpicto, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

leapfrog (countable and uncountable, plural leapfrogs)

  1. 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.
    • La Poſte (jeu d'Enfant) Skip-frog, or Leap-frog, a Boyiſh Play.[1700, [Abel] Boyer, “POSTE”, in The Royal Dictionary Abridged. In Two Parts. I. French and English. II. English and French. Containing near Five Thousand Words More than any French and English...
    • 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...1864 September, Archibald Maclaren, “Girls’ Schools”, in David Masson, editor, Macmillan’s Magazine, volume X, number 59, London; Cambridge: Macmillan and Co., 16, Bedford Street, Covent Garden, page...
  2. (UK, attributive, usually) The process by which a case is appealed or allowed to be appealed directly to a supreme court, bypassing an intermediate appellate court.
    • 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...2015, Scott Slorach, Judith Embley, Peter Goodchild, Catherine Shephard, “The Court System of England & Wales”, in Legal Systems & Skills, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 75
    • 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...2017, Elisabetta Silvestri, “The Italian Supreme Court of Cassation: Of Misnomers and Unaccomplished Missions”, in Cornelius Hendrik (Remco) van Rhee, Yulin Fu, editors, Supreme Courts in Transition...

Verb

leapfrog (third-person singular simple present leapfrogs, present participle leapfrogging, simple past and past participle leapfrogged)

  1. (transitive) To jump over some obstacle, as in the game of leapfrog.
    • Zachary Black jumps out from behind a bush. My heart leapfrogs up my throat, climbs out of my mouth and scarpers down the street.2016, Nick [Nicholas] Falk, chapter 1, in How to Beat Genghis Khan in an Arm Wrestle, North Sydney, N.S.W.: Random House Australia, Penguin Random House Australia, →ISBN, page 6
  2. (transitive) To overtake.
    • This new product will leapfrog the competition.
    • If the following bus has no passengers who wish to get off, it may leapfrog the leader but will face the same delay at the next stop.1949 July and August, Railway Magazine, page vii, advertisement by London Transport
  3. (intransitive) To progress.
    • [W]hen we emerged refueled from an air-conditioned café about forty-five minutes later, the temperature had leapfrogged at least ten degrees.2015 March, Bruce Weber, “‘The Horse Doesn’t Think It’s a Real Cow’”, in Life is a Wheel: Memoirs of a Bike-riding Obituarist, Scribner paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, Simon & Schuster...
  4. (UK, transitive) To appeal or allow to be appealed (a case) directly to a supreme court, bypassing an intermediate appellate court.
    • In Jones v Kaney [2010] EWHC 61 (Q.B.) at first instance, the issue was whether the claimant's psychologist in a personal injury claim was negligent because in a joint written statement with the other side's expert, she had resiled from her diagnosis of PTSD without comment or amendment of her...2012, Lord Justice [Rupert] Jackson, editor, Civil Procedure, volume 1, London: Sweet & Maxwell, Thomson Reuters, →ISBN, paragraph 35.12.4, page 1097
  5. (transitive) To advance by engaging the enemy with one unit while another moves further forward.
    • In late November and early December, General [William] Rosecrans juggled his units in preparation for the upcoming drive against [Braxton] Bragg. Among the changes, Sill's brigade relinquished its position in the advance of the army as other units leap-frogged south to the head of the army.2012 December 4, James Genco, “Rosecrans Forges His Army”, in Into the Tornado of War: A History of the Twenty-First Michigan Infantry in the Civil War, Bloomington, Ind.: Abbott Press, →ISBN

Proper noun capitalized: Leapfrog

Leapfrog

  1. (humorous, slang) Laphroaig whisky.
    • I poured myself some more Glen Generic then saw that somebody had brought a bottle of cask-strength Laphroaig, so abandoned my first glass and poured another of the Leapfrog and went to the fridge for some water.2008, Iain Banks, Dead Air
    • Laphroaig. The good old Leapfrog. That would do the trick. He knew it was supposed to taste better if it was watered slightly, but Boddice preferred it raw and unadulterated.2016, Les Wood, Dark Side of the Moon

leapfrog meaning in Indonesian, Persian and Vietnamese

leapfrog in Indonesian

game
lompat katak, lompat kodok

leapfrog in Persian

game
جفتکچارکُش joftak-čârkoš

leapfrog in Vietnamese

to jump over some obstacle
nhảy cừu
to overtake
nhảy cừu
military: to advance by engaging the enemy with one unit while another moves further forward
nhảy cóc

Examples of leapfrog in a sentence

  • The Supreme Court can hear appeals direct from the High Court under the ‘leapfrog’ procedure.2015, Scott Slorach, Judith Embley, Peter Goodchild, Catherine Shephard, “The Court System of England & Wales”, in Legal Systems & Skills...
  • Blackpool thus achieved their first double over Liverpool since the 1946–47 season but more significantly they leapfrogged their opponents in the table with a game in hand.2011 January 12, Saj Chowdhury, “Blackpool 2 – 1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 21 Dec 2016:
  • Technology is developing so quickly that it occasionally leapfrogs over earlier technologies.2014, Robert William Collin, “The Role of Government: Renewable Energy Sources”, in Robin Morris Collin, Robert William Collin, editors...
  • There's rain in the air, maybe the spring is turning back into winter now. […] Where nature leapfrogs spring and goes straight to summer, letting everything skip childhood.2015 March, Mons Kallentoft, translated by Neil Smith, Spring Remains: A Thriller, trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Emily Bestler...

All 12 example sentences with leapfrog

Forms of leapfrog

Noun
pluralleapfrogs
alternative formleap frog
alternative formleap-frog
Verb
third-person singular presentleapfrogs
present participleleapfrogging
past participleleapfrogged
pastleapfrogged

Plural of leapfrog: leapfrogs

Origin of leapfrog

From leap + frog.

Words formed from leapfrog

Questions about leapfrog

What does leapfrog mean?
Leapfrog means 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.
What is leapfrog in Indonesian?
Leapfrog in Indonesian is lompat katak, lompat kodok. See Leapfrog meaning in Indonesian.
How do you use leapfrog in a sentence?
The Supreme Court can hear appeals direct from the High Court under the ‘leapfrog’ procedure.
What part of speech is leapfrog?
Leapfrog can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce leapfrog?
Leapfrog is pronounced /ˈliːpfɹɒɡ/ (UK).
What is the plural of leapfrog?
The plural of leapfrog is leapfrogs.

Words near leapfrog in the dictionary

  1. leaper
  2. leaperous
  3. leapers
  4. leapest
  5. leapeth
  6. leapfrog
  7. leapfrogged
  8. leapfrogger
  9. leapfroggers
  10. leapfrogging
  11. leapfroggings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leapfrog (page history and authors); Leapfrog (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-leapfrog.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Leapfrog.wav.

Cite this entry: “leapfrog.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leapfrog. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.