leapfrog
Americannoun
-
a game in which players take turns in leaping over another player bent over from the waist.
-
an advance from one place, position, or situation to another without progressing through all or any of the places or stages in between.
a leapfrog from bank teller to vice president in one short year.
verb (used with object)
-
leapfrogs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
leapfrogged,
past participle, past
-
leapfrogging
present participle
-
to jump over (a person or thing) in or as if in leapfrog.
He leapfrogged the fence to reach the crying child.
-
to move or cause to move as if in leapfrog.
Manufacturers are leapfrogging prices because the cost of raw materials has doubled.
verb (used without object)
-
leapfrogs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
leapfrogged,
past participle, past
-
leapfrogging
present participle
noun
verb
-
-
(intr) to play leapfrog
-
(tr) to leap in this way over (something)
-
-
to advance or cause to advance by jumps or stages
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
leapfrogsimple
-
leapfrogssimple
-
have leapfroggedperfect
-
has leapfroggedperfect
-
am leapfroggingprogressive
-
are leapfroggingprogressive
-
is leapfroggingprogressive
-
have been leapfroggingperfect progressive
-
has been leapfroggingperfect progressive
Past
-
leapfroggedsimple
-
had leapfroggedperfect
-
was leapfroggingprogressive
-
were leapfroggingprogressive
-
had been leapfroggingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of leapfrog
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That means a willingness to master new skills and leapfrog colleagues who have more experience—for instance, by taking a weekend to figure out how to use new vibe-coding tools.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
There could be something of a leapfrog past Holyrood in this scenario.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
The park is a bet that the city can leapfrog to the next tech era.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
"The industry has to innovate and leapfrog, and not just copy and paste China," he said.
From Barron's ● May 13, 2026
Another leapfrog jump and he sat atop the nine-foot log.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
Intent on ensuring that China leapfrogs the U.S. as the world’s pre-eminent power, Xi Jinping recently made the gutsy and perhaps counterintuitive decision to invest massively in an arena of American strength—basic research.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
Jacks played his two Tests in 2022 and leapfrogs Rehan Ahmed, Liam Dawson and Jack Leach to provide cover for Shoaib Bashir.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2025
“Surrender” leapfrogs through Bono’s and U2’s improbable story in vignettes that zigzag between poetic and prosaic, devout and skeptical, privileged and conscientious, mystical and political.
From New York Times ● Mar. 17, 2023
The increase leapfrogs the Fed's 75 basis points increase last month for the largest since central banks began responding to inflation in force earlier this year.
From Reuters ● Jul. 13, 2022
But Tom was most astonished to see how he fired himself off—snap! like the leapfrogs which you make out of a goose's breastbone.
From Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 2 by Charles Herbert Sylvester
Like when he somehow leapfrogged a defender while flying backward, a feat enshrined on the cover of the Madden NFL videogame.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
But Ms. Raman leapfrogged Mr. Pratt on Sunday after tens of thousands of additional ballots were counted.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026
Anthropic has leapfrogged ahead of rival artificial intelligence developer OpenAI, filing its confidential paperwork for an initial public offering.
From Barron's ● Jun. 2, 2026
Jurors in New Mexico leapfrogged their California peers Tuesday, handing down a $375 million verdict against Meta for endangering children while a similar lawsuit remains pending in Los Angeles County.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2026
I crawled, dragged myself, weakly leapfrogged to the tree.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
Olsen: I’m sort of leapfrogging over nominations, and I’m just thinking about what would be exciting on the show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
First, the court agreed to issue its final judgment in Callais quickly, leapfrogging over the normal period when parties could seek Supreme Court rehearing.
From Slate ● May 13, 2026
At least one team that kept leapfrogging us didn’t reach their Atlantic goal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2025
“We are moving literally at the speed of light. Our one-year cadence is about us leapfrogging ourselves,” he said, noting Nvidia’s next AI server called Vera Rubin is slated for next year.
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2025
But by leapfrogging the United States into space, the Russians had turned even local racial policy into fodder for the international conflict.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
