ladder
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈlad.ə/
ipa: /ˈlæd.ɚ/
ipa: [ˈlæɾ.ɚ]
rhymes: -ædə(ɹ)
homophone: latter (with flapping)
Forms: form: ladders
form: laddering
form: laddered
form: laddered
form: ledder
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English ladder, laddre; from Old English hlǣder, from Proto-West Germanic *hlaidriju, from Proto-Germanic *hlaidrijō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlóydʰrom, from *ḱley- (“to lean”).
Compare Scots ledder, North Frisian ladder, Saterland Frisian Laadere, West Frisian ljedder, Dutch ladder, German Leiter; also Old Irish clithar (“hedge”), and Umbrian 𐌊𐌋𐌄𐌈𐌓𐌀𐌌 (kleθram, “stretcher”). See lean, which is related to lid.
Further cognates include Ashkun istrī, Kamkata-viri c̣ik, Prasuni čik, čix; Waigali c̣iř, Sanskrit श्रिति (śrití).
Senses: examples: text: And employing the innate gift for mimicry he'd always had – a gift which had made his father roar with laughter even when he was tired and feeling down – Jack 'did' Morgan Sloat. Age fell into his face as he laddered his brow the way Uncle Morgan's brow laddered into lines when he was pissed off about something.
ref: 1984, Stephen King, Peter Straub, The Talisman, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press/G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN:
text: By means of repeated bifurcations, [Carl] Linnaeus provided a five-tier botanic hierarchy. He laddered the plant kingdom downward from classes to orders, genera, species, and varieties.
ref: 1999, Lisbet Koerner, Linnaeus: Nature and Nation, Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 15:
text: I sat down, and he left his perch on the edge of the table and pulled out another chair for himself. We sat facing each other. He laddered his fingers under his chin.
ref: 2001, Frankie Y. Bailey, A Dead Man's Honor, Johnson City, Tenn.: Silver Dagger Mysteries, The Overmountain Press, →ISBN, page 70:
glosses: To arrange or form into a shape of a ladder.
examples: text: The Rochdale climber spoken of once fell 70 feet from a mill at Linfitts, owing to an accident while he was laddering. He was terribly hurt, but recovered, and still carries on his trade with unshaken nerve.
ref: 1896, Chambers's Journal, Edinburgh; London: W. & R. Chambers, →OCLC, page 367:
text: A good working knowledge of the ladder parts, how they work, their capacities, and proper usage are a must before anyone is sent out to ladder a building.
ref: 1998, John Norman, Fire Officer's Handbook of Tactics, 2nd edition, Saddle Brook, N.J.: Fire Engineering, →ISBN, page 164:
text: He was barefoot, but he was wearing his climbing harness and was attached to Telperion with a rope. He unclipped the rope, detaching himself from the tree. He stepped out onto a branch and free-climbed up to Cordaro's hammock. […] He laddered his way barefoot to the very top of Telperion. He didn't use a rope, and he felt that any hominid with any dexterity could have pulled off the climb.
ref: 2007, Richard Preston, “Detonation Zone”, in The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN:
topics: firefighting
government
glosses: To ascend (a building, a wall, etc.) using a ladder.
examples: text: Oh damn it, I've laddered my tights!
text: He slid his hand up her skirt and murmured in her ear. / "Robert, I've just got dressed. Stop it." […] / He laddered her stocking and smudged her lipstick, but she had time to repair the damage before they went out.
ref: 1993, Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong, London: Hutchinson, ISBN 978-0-09-177373-1; republished as Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, June 1997, ISBN 978-0-679-77681-9, page 254
text: "Oh, I see," murmured Maddie. She didn't see, though. Not really. Why cry over a ladder in your tights? […] "They must have been defective," she said. / "No, they weren't! It's me who's defective! I'm too fat to wear Mediums any more. That's why they ladder. They ladder the moment I put them on, because my legs are too fat. Everything is too fat!" Joanna shot her mother a baleful glance that brimmed with threat.
ref: 1994, Judith Clarke, “Tights”, in Friend of My Heart, St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press, →ISBN, pages 35–36:
text: She caught her mother's eye and said quickly, 'I wondered why your cardigan was laddering.' She looked around the kitchen. 'It is awfully cramped in here. Perhaps if we moved the table against the wall it would be better.' She found herself almost believing that Val and Mother had torn their clothes on the stove.
ref: 2004, Susan Sallis, The Pumpkin Coach, London: Corgi Books, →ISBN, page 106:
glosses: Of a knitted garment: to develop a ladder as a result of a broken thread.
examples: text: For eighteen minutes Revenge pounded the dockyard area at an average range of 15,700 yards, spreading for line and laddering for range to a prearranged plan to cover the whole target area.
ref: 2007, Peter Smith, Naval Warfare in the English Channel: 1939-1945, page 134:
text: Laddering made it possible to get a few hits on a fast-moving, often manoeuvring, target.
ref: 2014, Norman Friedman, Naval Anti-Aircraft Guns & Gunnery:
topics: government
military
naval
navy
politics
war
glosses: To close in on a target with successive salvos, increasing or decreasing the shot range as necessary.
topics: government
law-enforcement
glosses: To corruptly coerce a convicted offender to admit to offences to be taken into consideration which they do not actually believe they committed, as a way to artificially increase the rate of solved crimes.
raw_tags: of a police officer