| 释义 |
▪ I. climber, n.|ˈklaɪmə(r)|
Forms: see the vb.
1. gen. He who or that which climbs. Also fig., esp. one who seeks continually to advance himself. Also attrib.
1423Jas. I. Kingis Q. clvi, The wyly fox..The clymbare gayte. 1470–85Malory Arthur vi. xvi. (1889) 208, I am an ylle clymber and the tree is passynge hyghe. 1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. July 11 Great clymbers fall vnsoft. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. ii. i. 23 Lowlynesse is young Ambitions Ladder, Whereto the Climber vpward turnes his Face. 1639J. Clarke Paræmiologia 23 Hastie climbers have sudden falls. 1752Johnson Rambler No. 192 ⁋6 Outshone by those whom we considered as climbers upon our ruins. 1833Knickerbocker I. 179 But with all her meanness as a climber what a glorious leader of fashion she'd make. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. §3. 27 There are times when a climber has to make up his mind for very unpleasant possibilities. 1911H. S. Harrison Queed xxiv. 301 He was of the climber type, a self-made man in the earlier and less inspiring stages of the making. 1924G. B. Shaw St. Joan v. 56 Do ambitious politicians love the climbers who take the front seats from them?
2. Bot. A plant which climbs or creeps upwards by attaching itself to some support; also as the name of several climbing plants, as Great Wild Climber (Clematis Vitalba in Ray's Catalogue 1670), Sportsman's Climber (Cissus venatorum).
1640in Parkinson Theat. Bot. applied to Clematis Vitalba and other species (Britt. & Holl.) 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 86/1 Climers are such Trees that cannot support themselves but have a Pole. 1777G. Forster Voy. round World I. 175 The intricacy of briars and climbers. 1884Gardening Illust. 8 Nov. 425/1 The common Hop is one of the best of garden climbers.
3. Ornith. in pl. An order of birds (L. Scansores), characterized by their climbing habits, and commonly having feet with two toes before and two behind.
1828Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. I. 172 Climbers are those [birds] the structure of whose feet is calculated for motion on an inclined or vertical surface. 1847Carpenter Zool. §335 The climbers, such as Parroquets, Toucans, Woodpeckers, &c. 1856Yarrell Hist. Birds II. 138 The third division of the Insessores, or Perching Birds, are the Scansores, or climbers..which most of them have their toes arranged in pairs, or two opposed to two.
4. techn. A spurred boot for climbing (see quot.); also in Locomotive Engines, a driving wheel specially fitted with cogs, pincers, or the like, for work on gradients.
1874Knight Dict. Mech., Climber, a boot provided with spurs, by which a person is enabled to climb telegraph-poles to make repairs or additions to the wires or insulators.
5. A cat-burglar. Thieves' slang. (Cf. climb n. 3.)
1900‘Flynt’ & Walton Powers that Prey 64 An' I say that we hunt up a good sneak an' climber. 1960[see climb n. 3].
▪ II. † ˈclimber, v. Obs.
[deriv. of climb v., or assimilation of clamber thereto: see the latter.]
1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 101 Beware how ye climber, for breaking your neck. 1609Holland Amm. Marcell. xix. v. 128 Seventie Persians..at midnight climbered one by one up to the third storie or loft of the above said tower. |