Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Ladder

Lad′der (-dẽr), n. [OE. laddre, AS. hlǣder, hlǣdder; akin to OFries. hladder, OHG. leitara, G. leiter, and from the root of E. lean, v. √40. See Lean, v. i., and cf. Climax.] 1. A frame usually portable, of wood, metal, or rope, for ascent and descent, consisting of two side pieces to which are fastened cross strips or rounds forming steps.

Some the engines play, And some, more bold, mount ladders to the fire. Dryden.

2. That which resembles a ladder in form or use; hence, that by means of which one attains to eminence.

Lowliness is young ambition's ladder. Shak.

Fish ladder. See under Fish. — Ladder beetle (Zoöl.), an American leaf beetle (Chrysomela scalaris). The elytra are silvery white, striped and spotted with green; the under wings are rose-colored. It feeds upon the linden tree. — Ladder handle, an iron rail at the side of a vertical fixed ladder, to grasp with the hand in climbing. — Ladder shell (Zoöl.), a spiral marine shell of the genus Scalaria. See Scalaria.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.