See Also: clamber(dictionary)
clamber(dictionary)

clamber (iou)



clamber verb & noun. ME.
[Of frequentative form, prob. from CLAMANT: see -ER5.]
A. verb.
verb intrans. & trans. Climb using hands and feet; climb with difficulty and effort. ME.
S. Johnson They can..clamber the mountain. F. Herbert The craft creaked as the others clambered aboard.
verb intrans. transf. & fig.
a. Climb or struggle (up) into a position of eminence; attain with effort to. Now rare. L16.
b. Rise upwards heavily, irregularly, or steeply. E17.
N. Hawthorne A tall palace of gray, time-worn stone clambered skyward. Tennyson The narrow street that clamber'd toward the mill.
c. Of a plant: climb by means of tendrils. E17.
C. Raine Ivy clambers over the sides of a rusty cot.
b. noun. An act of clambering; a climb using hands and feet. E19.
clamberer noun a person who or thing which clambers; formerly esp. a climbing plant: L16.