[f. prec. sb.]
1. properly. a. intr. To ascend in a climax, rise by successive steps. b. trans. To arrange in a climax or ascending gradation.
a. 1849. Poe, Peter Snook, Wks. 1864, IV. 398. A masterly climaxing of points.
1861. [Dinah Maria Craik], in Macm. Mag., II. 444/2. Artistically speaking, this end [of G. Eliot’s ‘Mill on the Floss’] is very fine. Towards it the tale has gradually climaxed.
2. popularly. a. intr. To come to a culmination, to culminate. b. trans. To bring to a culmination.
1835. Marryat, Pacha, v. Guilt … which he had climaxed by the denial of his Redeemer.
1882. Mary Hallock Foote, in Century Mag., XXV. 111/1. The excitement … climaxed suddenly in her presence.
1886. Tupper, My Life as Author, 182. Thus losing the splendid scenery climaxed by the Devil’s Bridge.
