Word.ws English Dictionary

pull up the ladder

pull up the ladder is the alternative form of pull the ladder up behind oneself.

Meaning of pull the ladder up behind oneself

Verb

pull the ladder up behind oneself (third-person singular simple present pulls the ladder up behind oneself, present participle pulling the ladder up behind oneself, simple past and past participle pulled the ladder up behind oneself)

  1. (idiomatic) To prevent others from attaining or benefiting from the same advantages, opportunities, or rights as oneself.
    • Near-synonym: pull up the drawbridge

Forms of pull up the ladder

third-person singular presentpulls up the ladder
present participlepulling up the ladder
past participlepulled up the ladder
pastpulled up the ladder

Questions about pull up the ladder

What is pull up the ladder the alternative form of?
Pull up the ladder is the alternative form of pull the ladder up behind oneself.

Words near pull up the ladder in the dictionary

  1. pull up one's socks
  2. pull up short
  3. pull up stakes
  4. pull up stumps
  5. pull up the drawbridge
  6. pull up the ladder
  7. pull up your pants
  8. pull'd
  9. pull-apart
  10. pull-aparts
  11. pull-back

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pull up the ladder (page history and authors); pull the ladder up behind oneself (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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Cite this entry: “pull up the ladder.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pull_up_the_ladder. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.