climbing

Pluralclimbings (some meanings)

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of climb.

   She is climbing the ladder to fix the gutter.

   The team was climbing steadily as the weather worsened.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. With be it builds the progressive (she is climbing the ladder). As a gerund it fills a noun's slot while still behaving like a verb, so it can take an object directly: climbing the north face took all day. Both sides of climb carry over, the transitive "scale, mount" and the intransitive "go up, rise." Do not confuse it with the botanical adjective, which shares the spelling.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The sport of ascending a wall, rock, or other object using available holds, usually protected by a rope and a belayer.

   Climbing demands both upper-body strength and steady footwork.

   Many beginners try climbing at an indoor gym before tackling real rock outdoors.

   Note

   A verbal noun that has become the name of a sport, so it takes no plural: people take up climbing, not climbings. It readily heads compounds that name a discipline or its gear, as in ice climbing footwear. The word goes back to Middle English clymbyng, simply climb plus -ing. For a single trip up a slope or stair, English counts with the countable "ascent" sense.

3. 3
   adjective

   Of a plant, growing upward by gripping onto a surface such as a wall, trellis, or another plant.

   A climbing plant can quickly cover a bare wall with green leaves.

   Ivy is a climbing species that grips brick using tiny rootlets.

   Similartwining, rambling

   Note

   A botanist's term for a growth habit, not a plant family. Tendrils, adventitious roots or twining stems let the plant borrow height from a support instead of building a self-supporting trunk. Because it names a habit, it is not comparable: one vine is not more climbing than another. It usually stands before its noun, as in a climbing plant or a climbing species.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A single act of going up something, such as a hill or a flight of stairs; an ascent.

   Each climbing of the bell tower meant two hundred narrow steps, so the ringer saved it for Sundays.

   The route included several short climbings between rest points.

   Similarascent

   Oppositedescent

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