I have read the following sentence in a site where English is the language required to post.
Sass/Compass Complete Sass/Compass integration using best practices for Drupal/Sass. The Zen team has developed over the span of a year with blood, sweat and tears, but you can leap frog the pain by using what we've learned.
CSS If you're not ready for Sass yet, Zen still includes a full set of well-documented CSS files. Sass integration adds zero overhead, so if you simply ignore all of Zen's Sass, your site performance isn't penalized. No worries!
(I didn't respect the original format, since the linked page uses a HTML table.)
Looking at the NOAD, I get the following definitions for leapfrog:
- Surpass or overtake another to move into a leading or dominant position
- Pass over (a stage or obstacle)
In the first case, the verb is not used with an object, but it is used as in the following sentence:
She leapfrogged into a sales position.
In the second case, the verb requires an object, and it is used as in the following sentence:
She attempted to leapfrog the barriers of class.
Is idiomatic to say "leapfrog the pain"? Can leapfrog be used in a more extended way than the way shown by the dictionary?
Best Answer
It's the second meaning in use here, that is:
In this case, the "stage or obstacle" is the "pain" involved in the learning curve. The sentence is essentially saying:
where the authors have elected to shorten "hassle of learning" with the single word "pain."
The phrase "leapfrog the pain" isn't necessarily idiomatic, but, in this case, pain isn't much different from barriers (at least not syntactically).
That said, the phrase "blood, sweat and tears" is very idiomatic, and it means "a tremendous amount of hard work and effort." It's important in this sentence, because it helps the reader understand what pain is referring to.