Jack. - Horntip

Leap. 169 Leary.
215]. For many a proper man, . . .
Doth LEAP A LEAP AT TYBURN which
makes his neck to crack.
1720. DURFEY, Pals to Purge, vi.
327. All you that must take a LEAP IN
THE DARK, Pity the fate of Lawson and
Clark.
To LEAP (or JUMP) THE BOOK
(or BROOMSTICK, BROOM, BESOM,
or SWORD), verb. phr. (common).
—See quots.; TO DAB IT UP (q.v.);
TO LIVE TALLY. Cf. RUSH-RING.
1811. POOLE, Hamlet Travestied,
ii. 3. JUMP O'ER A BROOMSTICK, but
don't make a farce on The marriage
ceremonies of the parson.
1823. GROSE, Vulg. Tongue, 3rd ed.
S.V. LEAPING OVER THE SWORD, an
ancient ceremonial, said to constitute a
military marriage. A sword being laid
down on the ground, the parties to be
married join hands when the corporal
or sergeant of the company repeated
these words : Leap rogue, and jump
whore, And then you are married for
ever more.
1851. MAYHEW, London Labour and
London Poor, I. p. 336. The old woman
when any female, old or young, who had
no tin, came into the kitchen, made up
a match for her with some men. Fellows
half-drunk had the old women. There
was always a BROOMSTICK wedding.
Without that ceremony a couple weren't
looked on as man and wife.
1859. MATSELL, Vocabulum, S.V.
LEAP THE BOOR. A false marriage.
1860. DICKENS, Great Exfiectations,
ch. xlviii. p. 227. 'They both led tramping
lives, and this woman in Gerrard
St. here, had been married very young,
OVER THE BROOMSTICK (as we say), to a
tramping man, and was a perfect fury in
point of jealousy.'
1868. Cassell's Mag., 4. Jan., p. 222.
I dare say that most . . . have laughed
at the old joke about getting married by
jumping over a broomstick, and have
always thought that it was a sheer joke,
and nothing else ; but this is a great
mistake : the ceremony—so to dignify it
—of the couple LEAPING OVER A BROOM-
STICK, held by the man's mates a little
way from the ground, was the essential
and generally recognised rite of most
navvy marriages, and was held to be
binding so long as both parties were
agreed—a very important qualification.
There is reason to believe that this grotesque
ceremony is of very ancient date.
c.18(79). Broadside Ballad, 'David
Dove that Fell in Love.' The girl that
I had hoped to hear Pronounce my
happy doom, sir, Had bolted with a
carpenter, In fact HOPPED O'ER THE
BROOM, Sir.
LET THE BEST DOG LEAP THE
STILE FIRST, phr. (old).—Let the
worthiest take precedence.
To LEAP OVER THE HEDGE
BEFORE YOU COME AT THE STILE,
verb. phr. (old).--To be in a
violent hurry.
1670. RAY, Proverbs [BoHN (1893),
168], s.v.
To BE READY TO LEAP OVER
NINE HEDGES, verb.phr. (old).—
Exceeding ready.
1767. RAY, Proverbs [BoHN(1893),
168], s.v.
LEAPING-HOUSE, subs. (old).—A
brothel.
1598. SHAKSPEARE, I Hen. IV, I.
2. What a devil hast thou to do with
the time of the day ? unless hours were
cups of sack, and minutes capons, and
clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials
the signs of LEAPING HOUSES.
L EA -R IGS,SUbS.(Scots').-----The female
pudendum : generic. For syno-
nyms see MONOSYLLABLE.
LEARY (or LEERY), adj. (common).—
. Artful ; DOWNY (q.v.).
1823. GRosE, Vulg. Tongue, 3rd ed.
s.v.
1841. LEMAN REDE, Sixteen String
Yack, i. 3. The dashy, splashy, LEARY
little stringer.
1857. DUCANGE ANGLICUS, Vulgar
Tongue. For blokes to see That you're
a LEARY man.
1859. -MA ram., frocabrthint, s.v.
LEERY. On guard ; look out ; wide awake.