Jacob's ladder
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: Jacob's ladders
form: Jacob's-ladder
form: Jacob's Ladder
Etymology: After the Biblical Jacob's Ladder.
Senses: examples: text: Jacob's ladder; Christ is Jacob's ladder that reacheth up to heaven; and he that refuseth to go by this ladder thither, will scarce by other means get up so high.
ref: 1691, John Bunyan, “The Jerusalem Sinner Saved”, in The Works of John Bunyan, volume 1:
topics: biblical
lifestyle
religion
synonyms: angel's ladder
glosses: A ladder leading to heaven.
examples: text: Hetty could have cast all her past life behind her and never cared to be reminded of it again. I think she had no feeling at all towards the old house, and did not like the Jacob's Ladder and the long row of hollyhocks in the garden better than other flowers—perhaps not so well.
ref: 1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XV, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first:
text: Jacob’s Ladder doubtless receives its name from the ladder-like leaves. The flowers are delicately blue with white tubes and are clustered on graceful stems a foot tall or less. They may be found in spruce forests on the mountains at 8000-14000 ft. and bloom in summer, often so abundantly as to form a blue carpet on the forest floor.
ref: 1926, Edith S. Clements, Flowers of Mountain and Plain, 3rd edition, New York: The H. W. Wilson Company:
glosses: A flowering plant of the genus Polemonium.
examples: text: And this is one of the signs by which you can tell a man-of-war from a merchantman, for in war-ships the catch ratline is on the aftermost shroud instead of on the foremost. In a man-of-war, too, the topgallant-rigging is never rattled down, as a Jacob's ladder leads from the topgallantmast-head down to the crosstrees; but this Jacob's ladder arrangement is found in many clippers.
ref: 1891 November 28, W. J. Gordon, “Rigging and Rigs”, in Golden Days for Boys and Girls, volume XIII, number 1:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A rope ladder from the ratline to the upper mast.
glosses: A toy consisting of blocks of wood, held together by strings or ribbons, that appear to cascade downward as they flip over.
coordinate_terms: balisong
glosses: A pocketknife consisting of two handle segments joined by a pivot, with a blade connected by a second pivot to the end of one handle segment.
examples: text: The infinite Loch Ness monster and Jacob's ladder (Figure 12.1.1) are diffeomorphic surfaces.
ref: 2000, Alberto Candel, Lawrence Conlon, Foliations (Graduate Studies in Mathematics), volume 23, American Mathematical Society, →ISBN, page 311:
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: A noncompact surface resembling a ladder made of handlebodies.
examples: text: Jacob’s Ladder displays are sometimes found in science museums and centers. In demonstrations, an electric spark jumps between two parallel wires when electrons fed into one of the wires repel each other, heating up the surrounding air so the spark rises with the hot air before dying at the top of the wires.
ref: 2016 April 20, “Teen kills himself trying YouTube science experiment”, in New York Post:
glosses: A high-voltage electrical device, often used as a visual effect in old movies, which has a pair of vertical electrodes that form an arc between them starting at the bottom, rising to the top, then repeating.
glosses: A serving of short ribs.
examples: text: […] because the left leg of her tights has exhibited symptoms of the defect in the warp known as a "Jacob's ladder."
ref: 1869, Belgravia, volume 7, page 198:
glosses: A ladder or run in a pair of tights.
Derived terms: taxonomic: Polemonium vanbruntiae
word: Appalachian Jacob's ladder
Related terms: Ladder of Jacob