leopard-crawl, verb

intransitive. Military. To move stealthily along the ground, keeping very low and using elbows and knees for leverage.
1980 Daily Dispatch 3 July 2He slung the AK 47 he had taken off a tree and leopard-crawled undetected right through a village where the terrorists were.
1985 Sunday Times 11 Aug. (Lifestyle) 5Leopard-crawling and bent-double, they set off in search of the elusive herd.
1987 A. Soule et al. Wynand du Toit Story 21Wynand could feel the skin come away from his knees and elbows as they leopard-crawled to a point where he and his men hoped for a brief moment of safety.
1988 T.J. Lindsay Shadow (1990) 263He leopard-crawled painfully slowly along one of the lower slopes, in and out of rock cover.
1990 C. Sherlock Hyena Dawn 52Desperately he had tried to leopard-crawl to the open back door, but he hadn’t stood a chance.
1992 Sunday Times 13 Sept. 20They were..driven to a place..flooded with effluent from a leaking pipe and ordered to leopard crawl through it.
To move stealthily along the ground, keeping very low and using elbows and knees for leverage.
Derivatives:
Hence leopard-crawl  noun, this stealthy movement along the ground.
1985 J. Thomas in Fair Lady 1 May 20Boetie, lies and skande are punishable by 20 km pole PT and leopard crawl.
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leopard-crawl, n.

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