jump

verb

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.”

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

   “Parkour – often referred to as freerunning – entails creatively moving through an urban environment: flipping, jumping and vaulting across various obstacles.”

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 means of 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 jerk the body involuntarily in response to a sudden or unexpected stimulus.

   “That balloon popping made me jump.”

   “He jumped when he looked up to see a man standing before him.”

6. (figuratively, intransitive)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. (slang, transitive)To engage in sexual intercourse with (a person).

    “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. (intransitive)To increase speed aggressively and without warning.
16. (obsolete, transitive)To expose to danger; to risk; to hazard.

    “to jump a body with a dangerous physic”

17. (transitive)To join by a buttweld.
18. To thicken or enlarge by endwise blows; to upset.
19. To bore with a jumper.
20. To jump-start a car or other vehicle with a dead battery, as with jumper cables.

    “[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.”

    “[…] 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.

    “It jumps with my humour.”

    “The fortune of the dice jumpeth not commonly with the fortune of war.”

22. (intransitive)To start executing code from a different location, rather than following the program counter.

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

23. (archaic, intransitive, slang)To flee; to make one's escape.

    ““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. (figuratively, intransitive)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)To switch locations on chromosomes.
26. (intransitive, slang)To commit suicide.

noun

1. The act of jumping; a leap; a spring; a bound.

   “To advance by jumps.”

2. An effort; an attempt; a venture.

   “Our fortune lies / Upon this jump.”

3. A dislocation in a stratum; a fault.
4. 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.”

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

   “The skier flew off the jump and landed perfectly.”

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

   “There were a couple of jumps from the bridge.”

8. 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.”

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

    “the knight's jump in chess”

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

    “Press jump to start.”

12. 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.”

13. (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.”

14. A discontinuity in the graph of a function, where the function is continuous in a punctured interval of the discontinuity.
15. 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.
16. (slang)Any abrupt increase; a sudden rise; a hike

    “a dramatic jump in prices”

    “the number of serious offences in England and Wales involving a knife or sharp object recorded in the year ending March 2024 was 54 percent higher – a jump of nearly 22,000 cases – than the figure for 2016.”

17. An instance of faster-than-light travel, not observable from ordinary space.
18. A change of the path of execution to a different location.
19. (US, abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, informal)Ellipsis of jump-start.

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

20. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping)Clipping of jump cut.
21. Synonym of one-night stand (“single evening's performance”).

    “Next jump will be at the Chicago Theater, Chicago.”

22. A kind of loose jacket for men.

adv

1. (not-comparable, obsolete)Exactly; precisely

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

adj

1. (obsolete)Exact; matched; fitting; precise.

   “jump names”

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

name

1. A surname.