social climber

American  

noun

1. a person who attempts to gain admission into a group with a higher social standing.

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social climber British  

noun

1. Sometimes shortened to: climber.  a person who seeks advancement to a higher social class, esp by obsequious behaviour

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Other Word Forms

• social climbing noun

Etymology

Origin of social climber

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

Mr. Restall’s Columbus was a man on the make, a social climber who used his marriage in 1479 to Felipa Moniz, the daughter of a minor aristocrat, to further his standing.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026

He is a vain social climber, easily fooled by his clever, beautiful young wife.

From Slate • May 4, 2023

‘Barry Lyndon’ Ryan O’Neal stars as the titular 18th-century Irish rogue and social climber in Stanley Kubrick’s visually ravishing 1975 adaptation of Thackeray’s 19th-century novel.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 23, 2022

Coon plays Bertha Russell, a relentless and monomaniacal social climber who, a century later, could have been an especially coldblooded CEO of a Fortune 500 firm.

From Washington Post • Jan. 23, 2022

As Joanne Kaufman reported in the Wall Street journal, Ms. Pittman was known in certain elevated circles more as a social climber than mountain climber.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer