jumping

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of jump.

   Salmon are jumping upstream to reach their spawning grounds.

   She injured her ankle while jumping over the fence.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs inside the verb. After a form of be it builds the progressive (salmon are jumping), and as a gerund it fills a noun slot (jumping hurts her knees). It carries every sense of jump, including the figurative sharp rise, as in prices jumping overnight. Once it takes a plural or a degree, it has crossed into the noun for a leap or the lively adjective.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of leaping off the ground or another surface into the air.

   The repeated jumping during the workout left her breathless.

   Excessive jumping on hard pavement can damage the knees over time.

   Similarhopping, bouncing

   Note

   The countable noun, which can take a plural: jumpings. John Tyndall's Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion (1871) uses it for visible leaps in a physics demonstration, "the jumpings seen by a thousand people at once." The plural suits separate jumps watched or counted one by one. For the activity in general, uncountable jumping is the usual choice.

3. 3
   adjectivecolloquial

   Exuberantly active and full of energy; in full swing.

   The downtown club was jumping long after midnight.

   By the second set, the whole venue was jumping.

   Similarhopping, buzzing, rocking, lively, bustling

   Oppositedead, quiet

   Note

   Mostly said of places and events, such as a club, a party or a venue that is crowded and loud with energy. It usually follows the verb, as in the party was jumping, and casual writing and song lyrics clip it to jumpin', as the Baha Men's “Who Let the Dogs Out?” (1998) does. Unlike the verb form, it can be graded: more jumping, most jumping.

Showing meanings only. Show all 3