Meaning of climb in English

Many millions of years ago, our ancestors climbed out of the primeval ooze onto dry land.
We all climbed onto the bus.
The kittens kept climbing out of their box.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Boarding and alighting from modes of transport

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climb verb (GROW)

[ I ]

to grow upwards:

climb up/over There's masses of ivy climbing up/over the walls of our house.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Moving upwards

ascend
ascension
ascensive
ascent
be on an upward/downward trajectory idiom
heave
jump to your feet
jump up
levitate
levitation
mount
pull
rear
rise
rose
scale
shin
unscalable
uprise
upwardly

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Idiom

be climbing the walls

Phrasal verb

climb down

climb

noun [ C ]

/klaɪm/ us

/klaɪm/

an act or process of climbing:

We were very tired after our climb.

climb down/up The climb down the mountain took longer than the climb up.

make a climb I've made three climbs so far this year.

climb to Her climb to power has been very rapid.

Synonyms

ascent (CLIMB)

rise (MOVEMENT UP)

Opposite

descent (POSITION)

a place or object to be climbed:

The north face of the Eiger is a very difficult climb.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Mountaineering & rock climbing

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Moving upwards

(Definition of climb from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

climb | American Dictionary

climb

verb

/klɑɪm/

climb verb (RISE)

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[ I/T ]

to go up, or go up something or to the top of something:

[ I ] We climbed to the top of the hill, where we had a great view.

[ T ] She climbed the stairs to the third floor.

[ I ] The plane is still climbing and will level off at 33,000 feet.

[ I ] fig. As he climbed the corporate ladder (= moved into better and better positions in business), his salary increased dramatically.

[ I/T ]

To climb is also to increase:

[ I ] The cost of goods is climbing.

climb verb (MOVE)

[ I always + adv/prep ]

to move in a way that uses your arms and legs and often involves careful control over your body:

He climbed down from the ladder to get some more paint.

climb

noun [ C ]

/klɑɪm/

climb noun [C] (RISE)

an act of going up:

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

(Definition of climb from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

climb | Business English

climb

verb

/klaɪm/ us

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[ I ]

if a price, number, or amount climbs, it increases:

costs/prices/rates climb Our costs have climbed rapidly in the last few years.

climb steadily/steeply/slowly

[ I or T ]

to improve your position at work or in society:

He quickly climbed to the top of his profession.

climb the housing/promotion/corporate ladder As executives struggle to climb the corporate ladder, they often do not want to say anything that could harm their chances.

climb

noun [ C, usually singular ]

/klaɪm/ us

an increase in a price, number, or amount:

a climb in sth A sustained climb in interest rates could hit some parts of the housing market harder than others.

a period of improvement or progress:

It's going to be a long, hard climb before we get out of this recession.

Her climb to the top of the profession was remarkably quick.

(Definition of climb from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of climb

climb

They climbed mountains, descended rivers and looked out over vast interior plains.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

When the process is stopped, the path inscribed in the tree by climbing reaches a leaf.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The simplex crossover is fully inspired from hill climbing like algorithms.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Second, climbing and descending stairs in the manual mode requires operator's knowledge, experience, skills and training.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

First, the operation in manual mode is intuitive, and it would be almost impossible to ascertain stability on climbing and descent.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They silently accepted my o^er, climbing into the back of my car and politely indicating where they wanted to descend.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Having just climbed down from the trees, these first humans were thus relatively small.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They have invested heavily in cotton as the sole possibility for climbing out of poverty and keeping their countries stable.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A usurper is climbing the steps to the throne, and he promises changes.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Other environmental samples included soil, debris from footwear used at the camp and from the climbing tower.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The grouped ages and climbing the tower did not account for any significant variation.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

You awaken one morning on your amply outfitted but very small boat to find that a shipwrecked sailor has climbed aboard.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Isolated ripples and some climbing ripples locally preserved.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They had more natural feelings than those who climbed up the power ladder of the company's management.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The movements and habits of climbing plants (2nd edition).

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.