climb
/ˈklaɪ̯m/
climb verb: to traverse a slope or contour, either upwards (ascending) or downwards (descending).
Verb
climb (third-person singular simple present climbs, present participle climbing, simple past climbed or (archaic) clomb, past participle climbed or (archaic) clomb or (archaic) clumb)
- To traverse a slope or contour, either upwards (ascending) or downwards (descending).
- after I had found (the goats') haunts a little, I laid wait in this manner for them: I observed if they saw me in the valleys, though they were upon the rocks, they would run away, as in a terrible fright; but if they were feeding in the valleys, and I was upon the rocks, they took no notice of me...1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe Chapter 4
- People ask me, What is the use of climbing Mount Everest? and my answer must at once be, "It is of no use." There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever...What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money....1923, George Mallory, original quotation from Mallory's written manuscript notes for his 1923 United States fundraising lecture tour, found within "Climbing Everest: The Complete Writings of George...
- (literally or figuratively): To ascend; rise; to go up.
- Black vapours climb aloft, and cloud the day.1697, Virgil, “The Seventh Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
- 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 surf that clomb and fell, / Spume-sliding down the baffled decuman, […]1869 December (indicated as 1870 January), James Russell Lowell, “The Cathedral”, in James Thomas Fields, editor, The Atlantic Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics, volume...
- To ascend in a non-physical or figurative sense.
- The hit song has climbed to the number one spot.
- To move to a higher position on a chart or hierarchy.
- Prices climbed steeply.
- People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success only to find, once they reach the top, that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life Introduction
- To mount; to move upwards on.
- climbing a tree
- They climbed the mountain.
- To 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.2010 May 22, David Harrison, “American boy, 13, is youngest person to climb Everest”, in Daily Telegraph online
- Synonyms:
- scale
- To enter, mount or otherwise assume a position in or on a conveyance.
- He climbed into the passenger-seat of the car.
- We'll climb back on our bikes and continue the route.
- To 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 I could barely climb out of bed.
- Greasing involves climbing under the vehicle into an inspection pit.
- To practise the sport of climbing.
- To jump high.
- The defender climbed majestically at the near post to convert Johnson's corner.2010 December 28, Paul Fletcher, “Man City 4 - 0 Aston Villa”, in BBC
- As the game moved towards injury time, the Ospreys forced a line-out which Jonathan Thomas climbed high to take.2008 September 13, “Ospreys Glasgow Magners League”, in South Wales Evening Post
- (botany) Of plants, to grow upwards by clinging to something.
Noun
climb (plural climbs)
- An act of climbing.
- Make sure that you keep checking to see that everything remains safe throughout the climb.2007, Nigel Shepherd, Complete Guide to Rope Techniques
- 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.2012 July 15, Richard Williams, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track, Guardian Unlimited
- 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.1999, B. Keith Jones, The Roomie Do Me Blues
- 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.1998 September 30, AP, “Worst May Lie Ahead For Asia, Report Warns”, in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
- This memorial dedicated to those / Who persished on the climb2018, Maddy Makes Games, Celeste, →OCLC, level/area: Forsaken City
climb meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
climb in Hindi
- to ascend, to go up
- चढ़ना caṛhnā
- to mount, to move upwards on
- चढ़ना caṛhnā
climb in Tamil
- to ascend, to go up
- ஏறு ēṟu
climb in Marathi
- to ascend, to go up
- चढणे caḍhṇe
- to scale
- चढणे caḍhṇe
climb in Urdu
- to ascend, to go up
- چڑھنا caṛhnā
- to mount, to move upwards on
- چڑھنا caṛhnā
More languagesFewer languages
- climb in Bengali
- চড়া coṛa
- climb in Telugu
- ఎక్కు ekku
- climb in Malayalam
- കയറുക kayaṟuka
- climb in Kannada
- ಅಡರ್, ಅಡರು, ಏರು, ಹತ್ತು
- climb in Gujarati
- ચઢવું caḍhvũ
- climb in Odia
- ଉଠିବା uṭhibā
- climb in Sanskrit
- रोहति rohati
- climb in Assamese
- বগা boga
- climb in Nepali
- चढ्नु caḍhnu
- climb in Pashto
- ختل xatə́l
- climb in Tagalog
- akyat, pag-akyat
- climb in Arabic
- تَسَلَّقَ tasallaqa, شَعْبَطَة šaʕbaṭa
- climb in Malay
- naik, memanjat, mendaki
- climb in Indonesian
- mendaki, memanjat
- climb in Persian
- بالا رفتن
- climb in Thai
- ปีน bpiin, ขึ้น kʉ̂n, ไต่ dtài, เลื้อย lʉ́ai
- climb in Vietnamese
- leo, lên, trèo
- Kashmiri
- کھَسُن khasun
Examples of climb in a sentence
- And yet I must often have seen him so, climbing down the church steps after Mass, or walking across the square, hat firmly anchored.1988, Thomas Flanagan, The Tenants of Time Chapter 4
- So we continue climbing to the saddle of the Kleine Scheidegg, where ahead there comes into view the wide expanse of the Grindelwald valley, backed by the snowy crown of the Wetterhorn.1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 752:
- After Bridge of Orchy, the line climbs steeply into the wild country of Rannoch Moor.2023 November 29, Paul Clifton, “West is best in the Highlands”, in RAIL, number 997, page 39:
- 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.1900, James Frazer, The Golden Bough Chapter 65:
Synonyms of climb
Forms of climb
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | climbs |
| present participle | climbing |
| past | climbed |
| past participle | climbed |
| past (archaic) | clomb |
| past participle (archaic) | clomb |
| past participle (archaic) | clumb |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | climbest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | climbedst |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | climbeth |
| Noun | |
| plural | climbs |
Origin of climb
From Middle English climben, clymben, 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.
Words formed from climb
- ants climbing a tree
- bullet climb
- climbability
- climbable
- climb down
- climb down someone's throat
- climber
- climbing gourami
- climbing lane
- climbing maidenhair fern
- climbing nightshade
- climbing perch
- climb into
- climb on the bandwagon
- climb the ladder
- climb the walls
- climb up
- climb up one's thumb
- climb up the ladder
- declimb
- free-climb
- go climb a tree
- have a mountain to climb
- lead climb
- monkey-no-climb
- mountain to climb
- overclimb
- rock-climb
- step climb
- unclimbed
- upclimb
- climbdown
- climby
- downclimb
- freeclimb
- hillclimb
- misclimb
- outclimb
- reclimb
- unclimb
- unclimbable
- anti-climb
- climb-down
- climb-out
- climb rate
- cruise climb
- hill climb
- rate of climb
- rate of climb indicator
- uphill climb
- zoom climb
Phrases with climb
Words that rhyme with climb
31 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about climb
- What does climb mean?
- Climb means to traverse a slope or contour, either upwards (ascending) or downwards (descending).
- What is climb in Hindi?
- Climb in Hindi is चढ़ना (caṛhnā). See Climb meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use climb in a sentence?
- And yet I must often have seen him so, climbing down the church steps after Mass, or walking across the square, hat firmly anchored.
- What part of speech is climb?
- Climb can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce climb?
- Climb is pronounced /ˈklaɪ̯m/.
- What is the past tense of climb?
- The past tense of climb is climbed.
Words near climb in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: climb (page history and authors); চড়া (Bengali) (page history and authors); ఎక్కు (Telugu) (page history and authors); കയറുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); climb (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ختل (Pashto) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-climb.ogg.
Cite this entry: “climb.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/climb. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.