jumps

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of jump.

   He jumps the fence whenever the gate is locked.

   The cat jumps onto the windowsill to watch the birds.

   Note

   The -s ending marks a singular subject in the present tense, and it serves every use of the verb. It can stand alone (she jumps at the noise) or take an object (the horse jumps the gate). It also covers the figurative rise: when a price jumps, it shoots up. Because it is spelled like the noun plural, the surrounding words show which one is meant: the jumps or it jumps.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of jump.

   The course featured several difficult jumps near the finish line.

   The gymnast practiced her jumps until they were flawless.

   Note

   The ordinary plural covers every countable kind of jump: the leaps a gymnast lands, the ramps on a course, faults in a rock stratum, and breaks in the level of brickwork or masonry. A geologist's jumps and a mason's jumps are both interruptions of a line. Keep it distinct from the 18th-century bodice, a garment word that is used only in the plural.

3. 3
   nounplural

   A bodice that women wore in the 18th century in place of stays.

   She preferred her jumps to stays on warm summer afternoons.

   A pair of quilted jumps hung over the back of the chair.

   Note

   A garment word that exists only in the plural, like stays, the stiff undergarment it stood in for. A single bodice is still jumps, and it takes a plural verb: her jumps were too tight, not her jump was. The word belongs to the dress of the 18th century, so today it reads as costume or period vocabulary rather than as the name of anything in a modern wardrobe.

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