scaling ladder

American  

noun

1. a ladder for climbing high walls.

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scaling ladder British  

noun

1. a ladder used to climb high walls, esp one used formerly to enter a besieged town, fortress, etc

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Etymology

Origin of scaling ladder

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

scaling ladder

Meta styled Muse Spark as “the first step on our scaling ladder and the first product of a ground-up overhaul.”

From Barron's ● Apr. 8, 2026

Every rung of the scaling ladder being raised for the storming of the German defences on land and sea was planed and polished in the British Foreign Office.

From The Crime Against Europe A Possible Outcome of the War of 1914 by Roger Casement

If necessary, by means of this scaling ladder, he could work entirely from the outside.

From The Lost House by Richard Harding Davis

So, up he went, deserting the faithful scaling ladder on the roof, for the time being.

From The Voice on the Wire by Eustace Hale Ball

On the following morning Bourbon attacked the Leonine City, and while mounting a scaling ladder fell mortally wounded by a shot, which Benvenuto Cellini in his Life claims to have fired.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 3 "Borgia, Lucrezia" to "Bradford, John" by Various