Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To move upward, especially by using the hands and feet.
  • intransitive verb To move in a specified direction by using the hands and feet.
  • intransitive verb To engage in the activity or sport of mountain climbing.
  • intransitive verb To rise slowly or steadily; ascend: synonym: rise.
  • intransitive verb To slant or slope upward.
  • intransitive verb To grow in an upward direction, as some plants do, often by means of twining stems or tendrils.
  • intransitive verb To move upward on or mount, especially by using the hands and feet or the feet alone; ascend.
  • intransitive verb To grow in an upward direction on or over.
  • noun An act of climbing; an ascent.
  • noun A place to be climbed.
  • idiom (climb the walls) To be anxious or frantic.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To mount or ascend; especially, ascend by means of both the hands and the feet.
  • Hence Figuratively, to rise slowly as if by climbing; ascend; rise.
  • Specifically, of plants, to ascend by means of tendrils or adhesive fibers, or by twining the stem or leaf-stalk round a support, as ivy and honeysuckle.
  • To go up on or surmount, especially by the use of both the hands and feet.
  • Hence Figuratively, to ascend or mount as if by climbing.
  • To attain as if by climbing; achieve slowly or with effort.
  • noun A climbing; an ascent by climbing.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of one who climbs; ascent by climbing.
  • transitive verb To ascend, as by means of the hands and feet, or laboriously or slowly; to mount.
  • intransitive verb To ascend or mount laboriously, esp. by use of the hands and feet.
  • intransitive verb To ascend as if with effort; to rise to a higher point.
  • intransitive verb (Bot.) To ascend or creep upward by twining about a support, or by attaching itself by tendrils, rootlets, etc., to a support or upright surface.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To ascend; rise; to go up.
  • verb transitive To mount; to move upwards on.
  • verb transitive To scale; to get to the top of something.
  • verb transitive To move (especially up and down something) by gripping with the hands and using the feet.
  • verb intransitive to practise the sport of climbing
  • verb intransitive to jump high
  • verb To move to a higher position on the social ladder.
  • verb botany Of plants, to grow upwards by clinging to something.
  • noun An act of climbing.
  • noun The act of getting to somewhere more elevated.
  • noun An upwards struggle

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an event that involves rising to a higher point (as in altitude or temperature or intensity etc.)
  • noun the act of climbing something
  • verb move with difficulty, by grasping
  • verb go up or advance
  • noun an upward slope or grade (as in a road)
  • verb slope upward
  • verb improve one's social status
  • verb go upward with gradual or continuous progress
  • verb increase in value or to a higher point

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English climben, from Old English climban.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English climben, from Old English climban ("to climb"), from Proto-Germanic *klimbanan (“to climb, go up by clinging”), believed to be a nasalised variant of Proto-Germanic *klibanan, *klibajanan (“to stick, cleave”), from Proto-Indo-European *gley- (“to stick”). Cognate with Dutch klimmen ("to climb"), German klimmen ("to climb"), Old Norse klembra ("to squeeze"), Icelandic klifra ("to climb"). Related to clamber. See also clay, glue.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word climb.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.