climb

American  

[klahym] / klaɪm /

verb (used without object)

• climbs,
  present (3rd person singular)
• climbed,
  past participle,  past
• climbing
  present participle

1. to go up or ascend, especially by using the hands and feet or feet only.

   She climbed up the ladder.

   Antonyms:

   descend

2. to rise slowly by or as if by continued effort.

   The car climbed laboriously to the top of the mountain.

3. to ascend or rise.

   The plane climbed rapidly and we were soon at 35,000 feet.

   Temperatures climbed into the 80s yesterday.

4. to slope upward.

   The road climbs steeply up to the house.

5. (of a plant) to ascend by twining or by means of tendrils, adhesive tissues, etc..

   The ivy climbed to the roof.

6. to proceed or move by using the hands and feet, especially on an elevated place; crawl.

   to climb along a branch;

   to climb around on the roof.

7. to ascend in prominence, fortune, etc..

   From lowly beginnings he climbed to the highest office in the land.

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verb (used with object)

• climbs,
  present (3rd person singular)
• climbed,
  past participle,  past
• climbing
  present participle

1. to ascend, go up, or get to the top of, especially by the use of the hands and feet or feet alone or by continuous or strenuous effort.

   to climb a rope;

   to climb the stairs;

   to climb a mountain.

   Antonyms:

   descend

2. to go to the top of and over.

   The prisoners climbed the wall and escaped.

noun

• climbs
  plural

1. a climbing; an ascent by climbing.

   It was a long climb to the top of the hill.

   Antonyms:

   descent

2. a place to be climbed.

   That peak is quite a climb.

verb phrase

1. climb down

   1. to descend, especially by using both hands and feet.

      She climbed down from the treehouse and went to wash up for supper.

   2. Chiefly British. to retreat from a policy, opinion, position in a debate, etc..

      He climbed down from that argument once he saw that it was based on incorrect data.

2. climb the walls to become tense or frantic.

   After a week stuck inside the house, the kids were climbing the walls.

climb British  

/ klaɪm /

verb

1. to go up or ascend (stairs, a mountain, etc)

2. (often foll by along) to progress with difficulty

   to climb along a ledge

3. to rise to a higher point or intensity

   the temperature climbed

4. to incline or slope upwards

   the road began to climb

5. to ascend in social position

6. (of plants) to grow upwards by twining, using tendrils or suckers, etc

7. informal (foll by into) to put (on) or get (into)

8. to be a climber or mountaineer

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noun

1. the act or an instance of climbing

2. a place or thing to be climbed, esp a route in mountaineering

Synonym Usage

Climb, ascend, mount, scale imply a moving upward. To climb is to make one's way upward, often with effort: to climb a mountain. Ascend, in its literal meaning (“to go up”), is general, but it now usually suggests a gradual or stately movement, with or without effort, often to a considerable degree of altitude: to ascend the heights; to ascend the Himalayas. Mount may be interchangeable with ascend, but also suggests climbing on top of or astride of: to mount a platform, a horse. Scale, a more literary word, implies difficult or hazardous climbing up or over something: to scale a summit.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• reclimb
  verb (used with object)
• climbable
  adjective
• half-climbing
  adjective
• nonclimbable
  adjective
• nonclimbing
  adjective
• unclimbable
  adjective
• unclimbed
  adjective
• unclimbing
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• climbs
  plural

Participles

• climbing
  present
• climbed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• climb
  simple
• climbs
  simple
• have climbed
  perfect
• has climbed
  perfect
• am climbing
  progressive
• are climbing
  progressive
• is climbing
  progressive
• have been climbing
  perfect progressive
• has been climbing
  perfect progressive

Past

• climbed
  simple
• had climbed
  perfect
• was climbing
  progressive
• were climbing
  progressive
• had been climbing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will climb
  simple
• will have climbed
  perfect
• will be climbing
  progressive
• will have been climbing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of climb

First recorded before 1000; Middle English climben, Old English climban; cognate with Dutch, German klimmen; akin to clamber

Explanation

To climb is to go higher. When you ascend a mountain, you climb it, and when a song rises in popularity, it climbs the charts. To climb something generally takes hard work, which is clear when you watch a toddler climb a jungle gym or a mountaineer climb a sheer rock wall. You can also climb things metaphorically, like when a soldier climbs the ranks from corporal to major. Prices can climb too, when they get higher, and you can climb a social ladder when you meet well-connected people at parties. The Germanic root is klimban, "go up by clinging."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

climb climbs climbed climbing

Earlier this month, diesel prices climbed above $6 per gallon in the U.S. for the first time ever, and continues to climb.

From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026

He’s only continued that climb since coming to USC.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

During the early days of the war, some oil experts were warning of a risk that oil prices might climb as high as $200 a barrel.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026

As prices climb higher and higher, hardware developers don't have much of a choice but to put up their own.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

“Aw, Daisy, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I couldn’t climb that sycamore. It’s the biggest one in those bottoms. Why, it’s a hundred and fifty feet to the first limb.”

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls

While rates for other pregnancy-related deaths also increased during the pandemic, those climbs have largely subsided.

From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026

Money raised by her mountain climbs will now be used for the The Centre for Holistic Wellbeing and Recovery.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026

WSJ: Is there still a customer out there who is getting left behind as everyone climbs the premium ladder?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026

The annual plan climbs by $20 to $119.99.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

I get in front and CPU climbs in my lap.

From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko

Earlier this month, diesel prices climbed above $6 per gallon in the U.S. for the first time ever, and continues to climb.

From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026

In the past few months as oil prices and energy stocks climbed, insiders at over 35 energy companies have put around $55 million into their stocks.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026

Paramount climbed more than 7% to nearly $11 a share.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

In that time, the S&P 500 index has climbed around 35%.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

I had climbed down the cliff again and again.

From "Nory Ryan’s Song" by Patricia Reilly Giff

“The ‘Spider-Man’ market is again climbing ‘a wall of worry,’” Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, told MarketWatch on Friday.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026

The other image showed models climbing a ladder to reach shoes that hung from a tree branch.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

Shizuoka authorities say they will impose penalties on people who fail to register their off-season climbing attempts and strengthen efforts to keep climbers out of restricted areas.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

The Treasury secretary makes the argument that strong economic expansion is the antidote to climbing out of the deep debt hole.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

A person with a broken ankle would have a hard time climbing out of a car that was underwater.

From "Earthquake Terror" by Peg Kehret

Related Words

• ascend
• clamber
• go up
• mount
• rise
• scale
• soar
• top