jump

• enPR: jŭmp, IPA^(key): /d͡ʒʌmp/, [d͡ʒɐm̥p]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmp

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, jump”), an iterative verb.^[1] The OED suggests an imitative origin.^[2] Others have connected it to Ancient Greek ἀθεμβούσα (athemboúsa, “uninhibited”), which is unlikely.^[3] Related to jumble. In the sense “to propel oneself” it displaced leap partially and spring largely.

jump (third-person singular simple present jumps, present participle jumping, simple past and past participle jumped)

1. (intransitive) 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.

   Kangaroos are known for their ability to jump high.

   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:

     Not the worst of the three but jumps twelve foot and a half by the square.

2. (intransitive) To cause oneself to leave an elevated location and fall downward.

   She is going to jump from the diving board.

3. (transitive) To pass by a spring or leap; to overleap.

   to jump a stream

4. (intransitive) To employ a parachute to leave an aircraft or elevated location.
5. (intransitive) To react to a sudden, often unexpected, stimulus (such as a sharp prick or a loud sound) by jerking the body violently.

   The sudden sharp sound made me jump.

6. (intransitive, figuratively) To increase sharply, to rise, to shoot up.

   Share prices jumped by 10% after the company announced record profits.

7. (intransitive) To employ a move in certain board games where one game piece is moved from one legal position to another passing over the position of another piece.

   The player's knight jumped the opponent's bishop.

8. (transitive) To move to a position (in a queue/line) that is further forward.

   I hate it when people jump the queue.

9. (transitive) To pass (a traffic light) when it is indicating that one should stop.
10. (transitive) To attack suddenly and violently.

    The hoodlum jumped a woman in the alley.

11. (transitive, slang) To engage in sexual intercourse with (a person).
    • 1983, The Big Chill:

      Harold: How is Sarah? I don't want to jump her while she's on the rag.

12. (transitive) To cause to jump.

    The rider jumped the horse over the fence.

13. (transitive) To move the distance between two opposing subjects.
14. (transitive) To increase the height of a tower crane by inserting a section at the base of the tower and jacking up everything above it.
15. (cycling, intransitive) To increase speed aggressively and without warning.
16. (transitive, obsolete) To expose to danger; to risk; to hazard.
    • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

      to jump a body with a dangerous physic

17. (transitive, smithwork) To join by a buttweld.
18. To thicken or enlarge by endwise blows; to upset.
19. (quarrying) To bore with a jumper.
20. To jump-start a car or other vehicle with a dead battery, as with jumper cables.
    • 2000, United States. Employees' Compensation Appeals Board, Decisions of the Employees' Compensation Appeals Board: Index digest, page 511:

      [Someone] and Mr. Benfield were at the corner of Elm and Walton Streets when they were approached by Mr. Gray, who asked for help to jump his car. When informed they did not have jumper cables, Mr. Gray asked them to take him to get some.

    • 2015 January 30, Robert M. Morgan, Janet Turner Parish, George Deitz, Handbook on Research in Relationship Marketing, Edward Elgar Publishing, →ISBN, page 250:

      […] his wife, who was at home with their children, would drive to school to jump his car; both would drive home; […]

21. (obsolete) To coincide; to agree; to accord; to tally; followed by with.
    • a. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, act I, scene ii:

      It jumps with my humour.

22. (intransitive, programming) To start executing code from a different location, rather than following the program counter.
    • 2008, Garry Robinson, Real World Microsoft Access Database Protection and Security:

      When this section is completed, the code generally jumps back to the Exit Section, and the procedure is closed.

23. (intransitive, slang, archaic) To flee; to make one's escape.
    • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Red-Headed League:

      “It's all clear,” he whispered. “Have you the chisel and the bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!”
      Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts.

24. (intransitive, figurative) To shift one's position or attitude, especially suddenly and significantly.

    The administration is jumping back from that message.

    Think hard before you jump towards a particular solution.

25. (intransitive, biology, of DNA) To switch locations on chromosomes.

• (propel oneself upwards): leap, spring
• (cause oneself to leave an elevated location and fall): jump down, jump off
• (employ a parachute to leave an aircraft or elevated location): skydive
• (react to a sudden stimulus by jerking the body violently): flinch, jerk, jump out of one's skin, leap out of one's skin, twitch
• (move to a position in a queue/line): skip
• (attack suddenly and violently): ambush, assail; see also Thesaurus:attack
• (engage in sexual intercourse): hump, jump someone's bones; see also Thesaurus:copulate with
• (bore with a jumper): see also Thesaurus:make a hole
• (make one's escape): beat it, rabbit, take off; see also Thesaurus:flee

See also jumped, jamp, jumper and jumping

jump (plural jumps)

1. The act of jumping; a leap; a spring; a bound.
   • a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, →OCLC:

     To advance by jumps.

2. An effort; an attempt; a venture.
   • c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene viii]:

     Our fortune lies / Upon this jump.

3. (mining) A dislocation in a stratum; a fault.
4. (architecture) An abrupt interruption of level in a piece of brickwork or masonry.
5. An instance of propelling oneself upwards.

   The boy took a skip and a jump down the lane.

7. An object which causes one to jump; a ramp.

   The skier flew off the jump and landed perfectly.

8. An instance of causing oneself to fall from an elevated location.

   There were a couple of jumps from the bridge.

9. An instance of employing a parachute to leave an aircraft or elevated location.

   She was terrified before the jump, but was thrilled to be skydiving.

10. An instance of reacting to a sudden stimulus by jerking the body.
11. A jumping move in a board game.

    the knight's jump in chess

12. A button (of a joypad, joystick or similar device) used to make a video game character jump (propel itself upwards).

    Press jump to start.

13. (sports, equestrianism) An obstacle that forms part of a showjumping course, and that the horse has to jump over cleanly.

    Heartless managed the scale the first jump but fell over the second.

14. (with on) An early start or an advantage.

    He got a jump on the day because he had laid out everything the night before.

    Their research department gave them the jump on the competition.

15. (mathematics) A discontinuity in the graph of a function, where the function is continuous in a punctured interval of the discontinuity.
16. (physics, hydrodynamics) An abrupt increase in the height of the surface of a flowing liquid at the location where the flow transitions from supercritical to subcritical, involving an abrupt reduction in flow speed and increase in turbulence.
17. (science fiction) An instance of faster-than-light travel, not observable from ordinary space.
18. (programming) A change of the path of execution to a different location.
19. (US, informal, automotive) Short for jump-start.

    My car won't start. Could you give me a jump?

20. (film) Clipping of jump cut.
21. (theater) Synonym of one-night stand (“single evening's performance”)
    • 1950 December 23, Billboard, page 36:

      Next jump will be at the Chicago Theater, Chicago.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:jump.

• (instance of propelling oneself into the air): leap
• (instance of causing oneself to fall from an elevated location):
• (instance of employing a parachute to leave an aircraft or elevated location):
• (instance of reacting to a sudden stimulus by jerking the body): flinch, jerk, twitch

jump (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Exactly; precisely
   • c. 1599–1601, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 1, scene 1, lines 64–65:

     Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,
     With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.

• accurately, just, slap bang; see also Thesaurus:exactly

jump (comparative more jump, superlative most jump)

1. (obsolete) Exact; matched; fitting; precise.
   • 1640, Ben Jonson, An Execration Upon Vulcan:

     jump names

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour, / With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch

Compare French jupe (“a long petticoat, a skirt”) and English jupon.

jump (plural jumps)

1. A kind of loose jacket for men.

• jumper
• jumps

From English jump.

jump

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, neologism, euphemistic) to commit suicide by jumping from a building; to jump to one's death

• 跳樓／跳楼 (tiàolóu)

Root
j-m-p
2 terms

From Arabic جَنْب (janb).

jump

1. beside
2. to, towards

• Borg, Alexander (2004) A Comparative Glossary of Cypriot Maronite Arabic (Arabic–English) (Handbook of Oriental Studies; I.70), Leiden and Boston: Brill, page 189

From English jump.

• IPA^(key): /d͡ʒʌmp/, [d͡ʒʌmp]

jump (third-person singular simple present jumps, present participle jumpin, simple past jamp,jumpit, past participle jumpit)

1. to jump