# ladder

Pronunciation: US say "LAD-ur" /ˈlæd.ɚ/; UK/AUS say "LAD-uh" /ˈlad.ə/

## Noun

1. A portable frame of wood, metal, or rope with two side pieces joined by rungs, used for climbing up and down.
   - Simple: A tall frame with steps that you climb to reach high places.
   - _The painter extended the ladder to reach the second-story windows._
   - _Firefighters carried a folding ladder up the narrow staircase._
2. A path to a better position in life that consists of successive stages.
   - Simple: A set of steps or stages that take you to a better place in life.
   - _Volunteering abroad became an important rung on her ladder to professional success._
   - _He saw the apprenticeship as the bottom of a long ladder he intended to climb._
3. The ordered ranks or levels within an organization, pictured as rungs to be climbed, as in "the corporate ladder."
   - Simple: The order of ranks in a company, from the lowest jobs to the highest.
   - _After a decade of promotions, she reached the top of the corporate ladder._
   - _Office politics often decide who advances up the management ladder._
4. A line in a knitted garment, especially a nylon stocking, where the stitches have come undone. *(British)*
   - Simple: A line of unraveled threads in a stocking or knitted item, caused by a broken thread.
   - _A ladder had crept up her stocking before the interview even began._
   - _She kept clear nail polish in her bag to stop ladders from spreading._
8. In the game of Go, a sequence of moves following a zigzag pattern that ultimately leads to the capture of the attacked stones.
   - Simple: In the game Go, a chase of moves in a zigzag line that ends in capturing stones.
   - _He read the ladder all the way to the edge before deciding to play it out._
   - _A single stone in the upper corner turned the ladder in her favor._

## Verb

5. Of a knitted garment, to develop a line of unraveled stitches because a thread has broken.
   - Simple: To get a line of unraveled threads, as when a stocking's thread breaks.
   - _Fine stockings ladder easily if you catch them on rough surfaces._
   - _The sweater began to ladder where the moth had chewed through a strand._
6. To arrange or form something into the shape of a ladder.
   - Simple: To set things up in steps or rows so they look like a ladder.
   - _Gardeners often ladder the branches to train the plant upward._
   - _The editor laddered the headlines down the page in decreasing size._
7. To climb a building, wall, or similar structure using a ladder.
   - Simple: To climb up a building or wall using a ladder.
   - _The crew moved quickly to ladder the warehouse from the rear._
   - _They laddered the apartment block within minutes of arriving._
9. To close in on a target with successive salvos, raising or lowering the shot range as needed. *(slang, UK)*
   - Simple: To fire shots one after another, changing the range each time to close in on a target.
   - _The battery would ladder the range until shots fell on the bunker._
   - _The destroyer opened fire at long range, laddering for range until her third salvo straddled the cruiser._
10. To corruptly pressure a convicted offender into admitting to offenses they do not believe they committed, in order to inflate the rate of solved crimes. *(UK)*
   - Simple: To unfairly pressure a guilty person into admitting crimes they didn't do, so police seem more successful.
   - _Detectives would ladder suspects to pad their clear-up figures._
   - _The inquiry found that officers had laddered several inmates years earlier._

## Origin

Ladder comes from Middle English ladder, from Old English hlǣder, going back through Proto-West Germanic *hlaidriju and Proto-Germanic *hlaidrijō to the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱley- ("to lean"). It is related to words like Dutch ladder and German Leiter, and to English lean and lid.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/ladder (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).