Word.ws English Dictionary

clamber

Syllables: clam·ber/ˈklæmbə/US/ˈklæmbɚ/

clamber verb: to climb (something) with some difficulty, or in a haphazard fashion.

Verb

clamber (third-person singular simple present clambers, present participle clambering, simple past and past participle clambered)

  1. (ambitransitive) To climb (something) with some difficulty, or in a haphazard fashion.
    • The children clambered over the jungle gym.
    • Now, neither for his harp, nor quiuer, cares: / Him ſelfe debaſing, beares the corded ſnares; / Or leades the dogs, or clambers mountaines; led / By lordly Loue, and flames by cuſtome fed.1626, Ovid, “The Tenth Booke”, in George Sandys, transl., Ovid’s Metamorphosis Englished […], London: […] William Stansby, →OCLC, pages 199–200
    Synonyms:
    scrabble, scramble

Noun

clamber (plural clambers)

  1. The act of clambering; a difficult or haphazard climb.
    • Against intruding uncalled, and without a proper Sybilline conductress, into the realms of grim Pluto, he might have objections, not easily removed; but against a clamber to the scene of Jove's own Court [Mount Olympus], no objection could possibly lie, except the danger of breaking his neck, in...1814 February, J[ohn] C[am] Hobhouse, “A Journey through Albania, and Other Provinces of Turkey in Europe and Asia, to Constantinople, during the Years 1809 and 1810”, in The Literary Panorama […]...
    • The entrance to the caves is not far from the further gate of the park. Their position is truly disappointing. I had anticipated a clamber half up the side of the mountain, and then some vast rift of chasm, not attainable without difficulty and danger.1847 April 1–7, William Bennett, “Letter X. Dublin—Cahirciveen.”, in Narrative of a Recent Journey of Six Weeks in Ireland, […], London: Charles Gilpin, […]; John Hatchard & Son, […]; Dublin: J....

clamber meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada

clamber in Tamil

இறங்கு

clamber in Malayalam

പ്രയത്നപ്പെട്ടു കയറൽ, ആയാസപ്പെട്ടു കയറുക

clamber in Kannada

ಹಿಡಿದು ಹತ್ತು

Examples of clamber in a sentence

  • The worn-out Lawyer clambers to the bench / That he may live at eaſe, and keep his wench; [...]1768, William Wilkie, “A Dialogue. The Author and a Friend.”, in Fables, London: Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, […]; Edinburgh...
  • He purchased his own boat, and made a home / For Annie, neat and nestlike, halfway up / The narrow street that clamber'd toward the mill.1864, Alfred Tennyson, “Enoch Arden”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 4:
  • Fancy the secret meetings between the perjuring husband and wife, the denials of having seen each other, the clambering in at bedroom windows, and the hiding in closets!1894 December – 1895 November, Thomas Hardy, chapter I, in Jude the Obscure, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […]...
  • Thus, sitting where I was, I lit my candle once more, and then clambered across that great coffin which, for two hours or more, had been a mid-wall of partition between me and danger.[…]1898, J[ohn] Meade Falkner, “In the Vault”, in Moonfleet, London: Edward Arnold; Edinburgh: T[homas] and A[rchibald] Constable, […], →OCLC...

All 26 example sentences with clamber

Synonyms of clamber

Forms of clamber

Verb
third-person singular presentclambers
present participleclambering
past participleclambered
pastclambered
alternative formclammer
Noun
pluralclambers

Past tense of clamber: clambered

Origin of clamber

From Middle English clambren, clameren, clemeren (“to climb, clamber; to crawl, creep”), then either: * possibly from clam, clamb, clemb, past tense of climben (“to climb, get over; to ascend, rise”), and influenced by Old English clæmman (“to press”); or * from Old English *clambrian, from Proto-Germanic *klambrōną or *klambizōną. The English word is cognate with Low German klemmern, klempern (“to climb”), Scots clammer (“to clamber”); and compare also Danish klamre (“to cling”), Icelandic klambra, klembra (“to pinch closely together; clamp”), Swedish klamra (“to cling”). The noun is derived from the verb.

Words formed from clamber

Words that rhyme with clamber

Questions about clamber

What does clamber mean?
Clamber means to climb (something) with some difficulty, or in a haphazard fashion.
What is clamber in Tamil?
Clamber in Tamil is இறங்கு. See Clamber meaning in Tamil.
How do you use clamber in a sentence?
The worn-out Lawyer clambers to the bench / That he may live at eaſe, and keep his wench; [...]
What part of speech is clamber?
Clamber can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce clamber?
Clamber is pronounced /ˈklæmbə/ (UK).
What is the past tense of clamber?
The past tense of clamber is clambered.

Words near clamber in the dictionary

  1. clamatos
  2. clambake
  3. clambaked
  4. clambakes
  5. clambaking
  6. clamber
  7. clambered
  8. clamberer
  9. clamberers
  10. clamberest
  11. clambereth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clamber (page history and authors); clamber (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); clamber (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); clamber (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-clamber.wav.

Cite this entry: “clamber.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clamber. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.