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 215]. For many a proper man, Doth Leap a leap at Tyburn which makes his neck to crack.

1720. Durfey, Pills 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 book. A false marriage.

1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, 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 broomstick, 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.

Lea-rigs, subs.(Scots').—The female pudendum: generic. For synonyms see Monosyllable.

Leary (or Leery), adj. (common).— 1. Artful; Downy (q.v.).

1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, 3rd ed. s.v.

1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen String Jack, i. 3. The dashy, splashy, leary little stringer.

1857. Ducange Anglicus, Vulgar Tongue. For blokes to see That you're a leary man.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Leery. On guard; look out; wide awake.