Upleaped

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To have jumped or leaped upward
2. To have made a sudden vertical movement or bound
3. To have bounded high into the air with force

Etymology: "Upleaped" is the past tense of "upleap," a verb that combines the prefix "up-" with "leap." The base verb arrived in English from Middle English "uplepen," and "leap" itself had long been a sturdy Old English verb for springing through the air. Adding "up-" simply stressed the upward motion, so that "upleap" described a sudden spring straight upward rather than across ground. The compound is a native English formation, built from two elements the language already had. Its closest relatives lie in continental Germanic: Dutch "oplopen" and German "auflaufen" share the same up-plus-run pattern, though their senses lean toward running up, accumulating, or even running aground. Those cousins show that the "up-" prefix was a productive way for Germanic speakers to mark upward or intensified action on a verb.

Synonyms: leaped, jumped, vaulted, bounded, sprang

Antonyms: descended, dropped, fell, landed, tumbled