Library / English Dictionary

LADDER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Steps consisting of two parallel members connected by rungs; for climbing up or down

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("ladder" is a kind of...):

stairs; steps (a flight of stairs or a flight of steps)

Meronyms (parts of "ladder"):

rundle; rung; spoke (one of the crosspieces that form the steps of a ladder)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ladder"):

articulated ladder (a ladder consisting of segments (usually four) that are held together by joints that can lock in place)

extension ladder (a ladder whose length can be extended)

jack ladder; Jacob's ladder; pilot ladder ((nautical) a hanging ladder of ropes or chains supporting wooden or metal rungs or steps)

monkey ladder (a light ladder to the monkey bridge on a ship)

rope ladder (a ladder with side pieces of rope)

scaling ladder (a ladder used to scale walls (as in an attack))

sea ladder; sea steps ((nautical) ladder to be lowered over a ship's side for coming aboard)

step ladder; stepladder (a folding portable ladder hinged at the top)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A row of unravelled stitches

Example:

she got a run in her stocking

Synonyms:

ladder; ravel; run

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("ladder" is a kind of...):

damage; harm; impairment (the occurrence of a change for the worse)

Derivation:

ladder (come unraveled or undone as if by snagging)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Ascending stages by which somebody or something can progress

Example:

he climbed the career ladder

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("ladder" is a kind of...):

degree; level; point; stage (a specific identifiable position in a continuum or series or especially in a process)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Come unraveled or undone as if by snagging

Example:

Her nylons were running

Synonyms:

ladder; run

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "ladder" is one way to...):

break; come apart; fall apart; separate; split up (become separated into pieces or fragments)

Verb group:

run; unravel (become undone)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

ladder (a row of unravelled stitches)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I found they had already applied ladders to the walls of the apartment, and were well provided with buckets, but the water was at some distance.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Roderigo produced a rope ladder, with five steps to it, threw up one end, and invited Zara to descend.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

See how they storm and rage against the gate, while some rear ladders, and others, line after line, sweep the walls with their arrows.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I got a ladder myself, and crossing the wall, dropped down on the other side.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A ladder was brought, and I got down after the lady, who was like a haystack: not daring to stir, until her basket was removed.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

With that I scuttled down the companion with all the noise I could, slipped off my shoes, ran quietly along the sparred gallery, mounted the forecastle ladder, and popped my head out of the fore companion.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

This brought the lecturer to the great ladder of animal life, beginning low down in molluscs and feeble sea creatures, then up rung by rung through reptiles and fishes, till at last we came to a kangaroo-rat, a creature which brought forth its young alive, the direct ancestor of all mammals, and presumably, therefore, of everyone in the audience.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Nor could he have guessed that the particular five dollars that belonged to him had been appropriated by the business manager for the painting of his house in Alameda, which painting he performed himself, on week-day afternoons, because he could not afford to pay union wages and because the first scab he had employed had had a ladder jerked out from under him and been sent to the hospital with a broken collar-bone.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It was my first descent into the forecastle, and I shall not soon forget my impression of it, caught as I stood on my feet at the bottom of the ladder.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

And as he felt pity for them, he raised the ladder, and climbed up, unbound one of them after the other, and brought down all seven.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)