Forms: 6 clime, 7 climbe, 8– climb. [f. CLIMB v.] The act of climbing; a place where one must climb; an ascent.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., I. 38/2. On three sides thereof the clime is verie steepe and headlong.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 996/1. The places of the wall where the clime was most easie.
1618. Bolton, Florus, III. iii. 169. At the very climbe of the Alps.
1816. Keatinge, Trav., I. 75. The climb (for it cannot be called a walk) would … be too fatiguing.
b. Comb. climb-down, a descent, fig. a withdrawal from high ground taken up; climb-fall a., characterized by climbs and falls.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 83. Free of proud feares, braue begg’ry, smiling strife, Of clime-fall Court.
1887. Globe, 10 Dec., 3/4. The important incident of the week … is the climb-down of Mr. Chaplin.
