climb

From Middle English climben, 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.

• enPR: klīm, IPA^(key): /klaɪm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: clime
• Rhymes: -aɪm

climb (third-person singular simple present climbs, present participle climbing, simple past climbed or (archaic) clomb, past participle climbed or (archaic) clumb)

1. (intransitive) To ascend; rise; to go up.

   Prices climbed steeply.

   • 1697, Virgil, “The Seventh Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Black vapours climb aloft, and cloud the day.

   • 1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 752:

     So we continue climbing to the saddle of the Kleine Scheidegg, where ahead there comes into view the wide expanse of the Grindelwald valley, backed by the snowy crown of the Wetterhorn.

   • 2023 November 29, Paul Clifton, “West is best in the Highlands”, in RAIL, number 997, page 39:

     After Bridge of Orchy, the line climbs steeply into the wild country of Rannoch Moor. The railway builders chose a different route across the moor from the road - we are completely on our own up here.

2. (transitive) To mount; to move upwards on.

   climbing a tree

   They climbed the mountain.

   • 2023 July 6, Pamela Paul, “What’s the Story With Colleen Hoover?”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Other Hooverian devices become familiar too. Characters often have names that are so obscure they barely seem like real names (Ryle, Lowen, Chastin, Atlas, Crew) but might wind up climbing the baby name list — now you know why — in a few years’ time.

3. (transitive) To scale; to get to the top of something.
   • 2010 May 22, David Harrison, “American boy, 13, is youngest person to climb Everest”, in Daily Telegraph online‎^[2]:

     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.

4. (transitive) To move (especially up and down something) by gripping with the hands and using the feet.

   My legs were so stiff and my arms so sore that this morning barely couldclimb out of bed.

   • 1900, James Frazer, The Golden Bough Chapter 65:

     A priest clad in a white robe climbs the tree and with a golden sickle cuts the mistletoe, which is caught in a white cloth.

   • 1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill., New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC:

     She thought she must have been mistaken at first, for none of the scarecrows in Kansas ever wink; but presently the figure nodded its head to her in a friendly way. Then she climbed down from the fence and walked up to it, while Toto ran around the pole and barked.

   • 2008, Tony Atkins, Dragonhawk - the Turning:

     Cutter and Bolan climbed around the furniture and piled into the back of the truck.

5. (intransitive) To practise the sport of climbing.
6. (intransitive) To jump high.
   • 2010 December 28, Paul Fletcher, “Man City 4 - 0 Aston Villa”, in BBC‎^[3]:

     The defender climbed majestically at the near post to convert Johnson's corner.

   • 2008 September 13, “Ospreys Glasgow Magners League”, in South Wales Evening Post‎^[4]:

     As the game moved towards injury time, the Ospreys forced a line-out which Jonathan Thomas climbed high to take.

   • 2001 December 29, Derick Allsop, “Bolton's nine men hit back to steal a point”, in Daily Telegraph online‎^[5]:

     Four minutes of stoppage time were virtually up when Ricketts climbed to head in the equaliser from substitute Nicky Southall's centre.

7. To move to a higher position on the social ladder.
8. To move to a higher position on a chart, table, society, etc.

   The hit song has climbed to the number one spot.

9. (botany) Of plants, to grow upwards by clinging to something.

In the past, the forms clomb and clumb were encountered as simple past and past participle forms; these forms are now archaic or dialectal.

(get to the top of): scale

English Wikipedia has an article on:

climb

Wikipedia

climb (plural climbs)

1. An act of climbing.
   • 2007, Nigel Shepherd, Complete Guide to Rope Techniques:

     Make sure that you keep checking to see that everything remains safe throughout the climb.

2. The act of getting to somewhere more elevated.
   • 2012 July 15, Richard Williams, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track‎^[6], Guardian Unlimited:

     The Mur de Péguère is a savage little climb, its last four kilometres a narrow tunnel of trees and excited spectators urging on the straining riders.

   • 1999, B. Keith Jones, The Roomie Do Me Blues:

     I guess the room wasn't so bad, except for the climb to get there. The stairs were destined to be a serious health hazard.

3. An effort of moving upward.
   • 1998 September 30, AP, “Worst May Lie Ahead For Asia, Report Warns”, in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel‎^[7]:

     After a decade of prosperity, millions of Asians are likely to be pushed into poverty, and the climb out of poverty will stall for millions of others.

   • 2023 October 20, David Randall, Davide Barbuscia, “Relentless climb in Treasury yields may have further to run after surging to 5%”, in Reuters‎^[8]:

     An extended climb in Treasury yields risks exacerbating the pressures that have dogged a broad array of assets in recent months.

Pseudo-anglicism; transferred sense from English climb.

• IPA^(key): /ˈklajmb/, (careful style) /ˈklajm/
• Rhymes: -ajmb, (careful style) -ajm

climb m (usually invariable, plural climbs)

1. (aviation) variometer, rate-of-climb indicator

   Synonym: variometro