Skip, bound, hop, curvet, lope, lollop, ricochet can all mean to move or advance with successive springs or leaps.
The first three words are commonly referable to persons or animals but they may be used in reference to inanimate things.
Skip suggests quick, light, graceful movement and a continuous alternation of touching a surface and springing clear of it; often also when referred to living creatures it connotes sportiveness or excess of animal spirits.
Bound (see also JUMP ) implies longer and more vigorous springs than skip and carries a stronger suggestion of elasticity and buoyancy of spirit.
Hop suggests a less flowing or springy movement than the two preceding words; at times it connotes jerkiness and lack of dignity in movement. It implies a succession of small quick leaps (as of birds, toads, or grasshoppers), and in reference to children it suggests a jumping on one foot only.
Curvet may suggest a leap of a horse in which he raises both forelegs at once and as they are falling lifts both hind legs so that for an instant all his legs clear the surface, or in more general application it may imply frisking and gamboling or flightiness.
Lope evokes a picture of the long easy bounds of a lithe and agile animal (as a wolf or fox) on the run.
Lollop , on the other hand, implies a clumsy, irregular bounding that suggests awkwardness or heaviness of movement.
Ricochet is referable almost exclusively to things which are thrown, shot, or cast. It suggests a skipping caused by a series of glancing rebounds after the object first strikes a surface.