| 释义 |
Snakes and Ladders
Also with hyphens and small initials.
[See below.]
1. The name of a board-game for children in which the hazards and advantages are provided by snakes and ladders depicted on the board.
A counter that chances to arrive on a square at the head of a snake must be withdrawn to the snake's tail, while one that arrives at the foot of a ladder can be advanced to its top.
1907Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 1031/1 Snakes and Ladders. An interesting and most exciting game of chance. 1933N. Streatfeild Tops & Bottoms xii. 146 Felicity thought that bringing up Beaty was rather like playing Snakes and Ladders, through no fault of your own stepping on the head of a snake and sliding to the bottom again; in this case, with no ladder in view up which to shoot to regain lost ground. 1946E. Linklater Private Angelo viii. 89 Promotion in war-time was like..a game of snakes-and-ladders. 1964A. Wykes Gambling vi. 128 Backgammon..is the precursor of practically every modern board-and-pieces game in which the moves are decided by dice—even parlor games like snakes-and-ladders. 1980Daily Tel. 25 Jan. 15/3 New and more sophisticated versions of snakes and ladders and noughts and crosses will also be provided [on trains].
2. fig. A series of unpredictable successes and set-backs. Hence snake-and-ladder adj.
1930M. Allingham Mystery Mile xxiii. 213 The [fire] engines were still drawn up outside Number Thirty Four. ‘Still playing Snakes and Ladders, I see,’ said Campion. 1961Listener 31 Aug. 319/2 The artists whose life-work does not find a place in the historical snakes and ladders of avant-garde development. 1978G. Greene Human Factor v. iii. 267 After so many years of concealment he was beginning to enjoy this snake-and-ladder game. 1978G. Sims Rex Mundi xix. 117 Snakes and ladders progress, old man—that's all we can hope for. A lucky throw that puts us on the ladder. 1982Church Times 23 July 6/1 Nothing could illustrate more graphically the snake-and-ladder aspect of a political career than the last year of Tony Crosland's life. |