Word.ws English Dictionary

climb down

climb down noun: an abandonment, withdrawal from, or softening of a previously expressed opinion, policy, argument, etc.

Noun

climb down (plural climb downs)

  1. (idiomatic, sometimes hyphenated) An abandonment, withdrawal from, or softening of a previously expressed opinion, policy, argument, etc.
    • It is interesting to speculate on what combination of factors acted within the Bush administration to bring about the climb-down from its previous position.2003 August 7, “Hope for Korea”, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, retrieved 30 Jun 2011, page A20
    • His climb-down from the "hard, secular" image was mainly to widen his support base.2003 September 27, “Mulyam shows his ‘secular’ face again, hits out at BJP”, in India Times, retrieved 30 Jun 2011

Verb

climb down (third-person singular simple present climbs down, present participle climbing down, simple past and past participle climbed down)

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see climb, down.
    • It took 2 hours to climb up, but 4 to climb down as our energy grew less and less.
    Synonyms:
    backpedal
  2. (idiomatic, sometimes) To abandon, withdraw from, or soften a previously expressed opinion, argument, etc.
    • But Ekeus said Iraq had climbed down in its confrontation with the UN.1992 July 27, Paul Lewis, “Inspectors begin search in Baghdad”, in The Day, Connecticut, USA, retrieved 30 Jun 2011, page A5
    • No, but it may be a way for Clinton to climb down from a policy he seems increasingly to view as a no-win proposition.1993 May 24, Michael Kramer, “The Political Interest: Drawing a Line in the Quicksand”, in Time

climb down meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada

climb down in Tamil

இறங்கு, பின்வாங்கு, விட்டுக் கொடு

climb down in Malayalam

to climb down
ഇറങ്ങുക iṟaṅṅuka

climb down in Kannada

to climb down
ಬೀಳು bīḷu

Synonyms of climb down

Forms of climb down

Noun
pluralclimb downs
alternative formclimb-down
Verb
third-person singular presentclimbs down
present participleclimbing down
past participleclimbed down
pastclimbed down

Questions about climb down

What does climb down mean?
Climb down means an abandonment, withdrawal from, or softening of a previously expressed opinion, policy, argument, etc.
What is climb down in Tamil?
Climb down in Tamil is இறங்கு, பின்வாங்கு, விட்டுக் கொடு. See Climb down meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is climb down?
Climb down can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of climb down?
The plural of climb down is climb downs.

Words near climb down in the dictionary

  1. climaxing
  2. climaxless
  3. climazolam
  4. climazonal
  5. climb
  6. climb down
  7. climb down someone's throat
  8. climb downs
  9. climb into
  10. climb on the bandwagon
  11. climb rate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: climb down (page history and authors); climb down (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ഇറങ്ങുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಬೀಳು (Kannada) (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: en-au-climb down.ogg.

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