Leap

[tufguy]

Hi guys,

Please check this sentence "He leaped over my head in one jump"?

 

[Matthew Wai]

"At one stroke" may be better than "in one jump".

Not a teacher.

 

[Barb_D]

I can't agree. Jumping isn't stroking.

In a single bound.

 

[Matthew Wai]

"They threatened to cancel the whole project at a stroke."── quoted from My Oxford dictionary.

Cancelling isn't stroking either, why is "at a stroke" used here?

 

[SoothingDave]

I would hope it's in a single bound. People don't normally stop halfway when jumping over someone's head.

"He leaped over my head" is sufficient.

 

[SoothingDave]

"They threatened to cancel the whole project at a stroke."── quoted from My Oxford dictionary.

Cancelling isn't stroking either, why is "at a stroke" used here?

With a stroke of a pen, is how I would understand it.

 

[Matthew Wai]

"At one stroke the country lost two outstanding leaders."── quoted from http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/stroke_1 Definition#5

With a stroke of a pen too?

 

[Barb_D]

We also have the phrase "in one fell stroke" as through wielding an axe with such force that you can topple a tree with one giant swing. It's used metaphorically to mean a single action with significant consequences.

Sometimes you seem extremely reluctant (to the point of being argumentative) to accept a native speaker's guidance on how we actually use words when it doesn't match your interpretation and often extrapolation of what your dictionary says. Let's not let this become one of those times.

 

[SoothingDave]

"At one stroke the country lost two outstanding leaders."── quoted from http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/stroke_1 Definition#5

With a stroke of a pen too?

I doubt it. But it could be. Maybe someone signed an execution command? But probably it refers to a single action.

Think of a stroke as one single action, at one point in time, usually done with the hands or arms. We have strokes in golf, we strike at a baseball with a bat or a fly with a flyswatter. If you had a mighty sword you might fell a tree or cut off a guy's head with one stroke.

Back to the first example, you cancel budget items by writing a line through them. With a single stroke of a pen.

We have other words to describe individual acts of jumping/leaping/bounding. We don't call them "strokes."