clamber

[klam-ber, klam-er]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR clamber ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with or without object)

to climb, using both feet and hands; climb with effort or difficulty.

noun

an act or instance of clambering.

RELATED WORDS

climb, scale, scramble

Nearby words

Origin of clamber

1325–75; Middle English clambren, equivalent to clamb- (akin to climb) + -r- -er⁶ + -en infinitive suffix

Related formsclam·ber·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for clamber

Just gaining entry was difficult, and in many cases firefighters had to clamber up and lower themselves through windows.
Amazing Grace in the Bronx: Inside the Metro-North Train-Wreck Rescue|Michael Daly|December 2, 2013|DAILY BEAST
We get down on all fours and clamber along a 40-foot fallen log.
Exercising Like a Caveman: A.J. Jacobs Gets Primal|A.J. Jacobs|April 10, 2012|DAILY BEAST
By a stroke of good fortune he collided in his flight with a tree; instinct made him clamber up; he did it awkwardly.
The Witch Doctor and other Rhodesian Studies|Frank Worthington
In one of the breaches appeared a red kepis followed by legs of the same color trying to clamber over the ruins.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse|Vicente Blasco Ibanez

She had used himself and his profession as a sort of social ladder whereby to clamber upward.
The Brentons|Anna Chapin Ray
At every step we had to clamber over fallen 105 trunks of trees, to the injury of our shins, which were almost always bleeding.
Travels in the Interior of North America, Part I, (Being Chapters I-XV of the London Edition, 1843)|Alexander Philipp Maximilian, Prince of Wied
They ought to have seen to it that no one could clamber into the tower.
King of Ranleigh|F. S. (Frederick Sadlier) Brereton

British Dictionary definitions for clamber

clamber

verb

(usually foll by up, over, etc) to climb (something) awkwardly, esp by using both hands and feet

noun

a climb performed in this manner

Derived Formsclamberer, noun

Word Origin for clamber

C15: probably a variant of climb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for clamber

clamber

"to climb with difficulty using hands and feet," late 14c., possibly frequentative of Middle English climben "to climb" (preterit clamb), or akin to Old Norse klembra "to hook (oneself) on." Related: Clambered; clambering.