jump

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a sudden and decisive increase

   a jump in attendance

2. 2
   verb

   rise in rank or status

   My new novel jumped high on the bestseller list.

3. 3
   verb

   increase suddenly and significantly

   Prices jumped overnight

4. 4
   verb

   enter eagerly into

   We jumped into the game.

5. 5
   verb

   make a sudden physical attack on

   The muggers jumped the couple coming out of the gallery.

6. 6
   verb

   cause to jump or leap

   the trainer jumped the tiger through the hoop

7. 7
   verb

   jump down from an elevated point

   the parachutist didn't want to jump

8. 8
   verb

   To propel oneself rapidly upward, downward and/or in any horizontal direction such that momentum causes the body to become airborne.

   The boy jumped over a fence.

Etymology

From Middle English jumpen (“to walk quickly, run, jump”), probably of Middle Low German or North Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *gumpōną ~ *gumbōną (“to hop, skip, bounce”), an iterative verb. The OED suggests an imitative origin. Related to jumble. In the sense “to propel oneself” it displaced leap partially and spring largely. Cognates Cognate with German Low German jumpen (“to jump”), archaic German gumpen (“to jump, hop, bounce”), dialectal German gampen (“to hop”), Alemannic German gumpe (“to leap, jump”), Walser dialect kumpu, Old Norse gopta (“to jump; make jump”) Dani…