Word: climb Part of Speech: verb Etymology: 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. Pronunciation: /ˈklaɪ̯m/, [ˈkʰl̥aɪ̯m] 1. To traverse a slope or contour, either upwards (ascending) or downwards (descending). Labels: intransitive Example: 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; from whence I concluded that, by the position of their optics, their sight was so directed downward that they did not readily see objects that were above them; so afterwards I took this method - I always climbed the rocks first, to get above them, and then had frequently a fair mark. Example: 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. We eat and make money to be able to live. That is what life means and what life is for. 2. (literally or figuratively): To ascend; rise; to go up. Labels: intransitive Example: {{RQ:Dryden Aeneis|7|passage=Black vapours climb aloft, and cloud the day.} Example: 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, […] 3. (literally or figuratively): To ascend; rise; to go up. Labels: intransitive Example: The hit song has climbed to the number one spot. 4. (literally or figuratively): To ascend; rise; to go up. Labels: figuratively, intransitive Example: Prices climbed steeply. Example: 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. 5. To mount; to move upwards on. Labels: transitive Example: climbing a tree Example: They climbed the mountain. 6. To scale; to get to the top of something. Labels: transitive Example: 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. 7. To enter, mount or otherwise assume a position in or on a conveyance. Labels: intransitive Example: He climbed into the passenger-seat of the car. Example: We'll climb back on our bikes and continue the route. 8. To move (especially up and down something) by gripping with the hands and using the feet. Labels: transitive Example: My legs were so stiff and my arms so sore that this morning I could barely climb out of bed. Example: Greasing involves climbing under the vehicle into an inspection pit. 9. To practise the sport of climbing. Labels: intransitive 10. To jump high. Labels: intransitive Example: The defender climbed majestically at the near post to convert Johnson's corner. Example: As the game moved towards injury time, the Ospreys forced a line-out which Jonathan Thomas climbed high to take. 11. (botany) Of plants, to grow upwards by clinging to something. Labels: intransitive, transitive