/klaɪm/
OriginFrom Middle English climben, from Old English climban (“to climb”), from Proto-West Germanic *klimban, from Proto-Germanic *klimbaną (“to climb, go up by clinging”), believed to be a nasalised variant of Proto-Germanic *klibaną, *klibāną (“to stick, cleave”), from Proto-Indo-European *gley- (“to stick”). Cognate with West Frisian klimme (“to climb”), Dutch klimmen (“to climb”), German klimmen (“to climb”), Old Norse klembra (“to squeeze”), Icelandic klifra (“to climb”). Related to clamber. See also clay, glue.
- intransitiveTo ascend; rise; to go up.
“Prices climbed steeply.”
“Black vapours climb aloft, and cloud the day.”
“Looking up suddenly, I found mine eyes / Confronted with the minster's vast repose. / Silent and gray as forest-leaguered cliff / Left inland by the ocean's slow retreat, / […] / Remembering shocks of”
- transitiveTo mount; to move upwards on.
“climbing a tree”
“They climbed the mountain.”
“Other Hooverian devices become familiar too. Characters often have names that are so obscure they barely seem like real names (Ryle, Lowen, Chastin, Atlas, Crew) but might wind up climbing the baby na”
- transitiveTo scale; to get to the top of something.
“He is a curly-haired schoolboy barely in his teens, but 13-year-old Jordan Romero from California has become the youngest person to climb Mount Everest.”
- transitiveTo move (especially up and down something) by gripping with the hands and using the feet.
“My legs were so stiff and my arms so sore that this morning barely could climb out of bed.”
“A priest clad in a white robe climbs the tree and with a golden sickle cuts the mistletoe, which is caught in a white cloth.”
“She thought she must have been mistaken at first, for none of the scarecrows in Kansas ever wink; but presently the figure nodded its head to her in a friendly way. Then she climbed down from the fenc”
- intransitiveTo practise the sport of climbing.
- intransitiveTo jump high.
“The defender climbed majestically at the near post to convert Johnson's corner.”
“As the game moved towards injury time, the Ospreys forced a line-out which Jonathan Thomas climbed high to take.”
“Four minutes of stoppage time were virtually up when Ricketts climbed to head in the equaliser from substitute Nicky Southall's centre.”
- To move to a higher position on the social ladder.
- To move to a higher position on a chart, table, society, etc.
“The hit song has climbed to the number one spot.”
- Of plants, to grow upwards by clinging to something.
- An act of climbing.
“Make sure that you keep checking to see that everything remains safe throughout the climb.”
- The act of getting to somewhere more elevated.
“The Mur de Péguère is a savage little climb, its last four kilometres a narrow tunnel of trees and excited spectators urging on the straining riders.”
“I guess the room wasn't so bad, except for the climb to get there. The stairs were destined to be a serious health hazard.”
- An effort of moving upward.
“After a decade of prosperity, millions of Asians are likely to be pushed into poverty, and the climb out of poverty will stall for millions of others.”
“This memorial dedicated to those / Who persished on the climb”
“An extended climb in Treasury yields risks exacerbating the pressures that have dogged a broad array of assets in recent months.”
Formsclimbs(present, singular, third-person) · climbing(participle, present) · climbed(past) · clomb(archaic, past) · climbed(participle, past) · clomb(archaic, participle, past) · clumb(archaic, participle, past) · climb(infinitive) · climb(first-person, present, singular) · climbed(first-person, past, singular) · clomb(archaic, first-person, past, singular) · climb(present, second-person, singular) · climbest(archaic, present, second-person, singular) · climbed(past, second-person, singular) · climbedst(archaic, past, second-person, singular) · clomb(archaic, past, second-person, singular) · climbeth(archaic, present, singular, third-person) · climbed(past, singular, third-person) · clomb(archaic, past, singular, third-person) · climb(plural, present)