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.

  • transitive verb To ascend, as by means of the hands and feet, or laboriously or slowly; to mount.
  • noun The act of one who climbs; ascent by climbing.
  • 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.

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