climb
pronunciation
How to pronounce climb in British English:
UK [klaɪm]
How to pronounce climb in American English:
US [klaɪm]
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- Noun:
- an upward slope or grade (as in a road)
- an event that involves rising to a higher point (as in altitude or temperature or intensity etc.)
- the act of climbing something
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- Verb:
- go upward with gradual or continuous progress
- move with difficulty, by grasping
- go up or advance
- slope upward
- improve one's social status
- increase in value or to a higher point
Word Origin
- climb
- climb: [OE] The original notion contained in climb seems not to have been so much ‘ascent’ as ‘holding on’. Old English climban came from a prehistoric West Germanic *klimban, a nasalized variant of the base which produced English cleave ‘adhere’. To begin with this must have meant strictly ‘go up by clinging on with the hands and feet’ – to ‘swarm up’, in fact – but already by the late Old English period we find it being used for ‘rising’ in general. The original past tense clamb, which died out in most areas in the 16th century, is probably related to clamp ‘fastening’ [14].=> clamp, cleave
- climb (v.)
- Old English climban "raise oneself using hands and feet; rise gradually, ascend; make an ascent of" (past tense clamb, past participle clumben, clumbe), from West Germanic *klimban "go up by clinging" (cognates: Dutch klimmen "to climb," Old High German klimban, German klimmen). A strong verb in Old English, weak by 16c. Most other Germanic languages long ago dropped the -b. Meaning "to mount as if by climbing" is from mid-14c. Figurative sense of "rise slowly by effort" is from mid-13c. Related: Climbed; climbing.
- climb (n.)
- 1580s, "act of climbing," from climb (v.). Meaning "an ascent by climbing" is from 1915, originally in aviation.
Example
- 1. Jump onto the rock or climb the tree ?
- 2. But chinese manufacturers are starting to climb up the value chain .
- 3. Unemployment will continue to climb for some time globally .
- 4. We climb and jump around in the playground .
- 5. Most crashes occur as planes take off and climb or as they approach and land at airports .