See angel's ladder on Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "angel's ladders",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "angel's ladder (plural angel's ladders)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "16 34 5 27 16 2",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1850, B. J. Lossing, “The Covenant”, in The Odd-fellows' Offering for 1850, page 108:",
"text": "Nor will the light fade from the vision, when it is turned toward the valley of the shadow of death, if faith shall keep it fixed upon the token of the covenant, for its beautiful arch bridges over the chasm, and like the angel's ladder, in Jacob's dream, it reaches from earth to heaven.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1867, Martha Eugenia Berry, Celesta: A Girl's Book, page 122:",
"text": "She thought of Jacob, with his pillow of stone and his angel's ladder, and then raised her thoughts in prayer.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1869, Nelly Marshall, As by Fire, page 156:",
"text": "And the vistas grew bright with the light of faith; and even as Jacob sleeping at the foot of the angel's ladder, saw that \"all things are less dreadful than they seem,\" she knew that her life would not be barren of joy and comfort.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Synonym of Jacob's ladder",
"A ladder leading to heaven."
],
"id": "en-angel's_ladder-en-noun-X7hi5Est",
"links": [
[
"Jacob's ladder",
"Jacob's ladder#English"
],
[
"ladder",
"ladder"
],
[
"heaven",
"heaven"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "16 34 5 27 16 2",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "22 33 3 24 15 2",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "19 35 2 26 16 2",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1892, Ouida, Signa:",
"text": "Who gave the spiderwort to St. Bruno; the black briony for our Lady's Seal; the corn-feverfew to St. Anne; the common bean to St. Ignatius; the bane-berry to St. Christopher; the blue valerian to Jacob for his angel's ladder; the toywort to the shepherds for their purse?",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1894, J. Wood, Voices of the Past, page 33:",
"text": "Give me Consolation; and the Angel's Ladder: And the bright blue flow'r of Happiness, streaked with gold, That blooms only on the hill top; never in crowds: Remember , how happy she was with us.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1968, Commentary - Volume 46, page 92:",
"text": "You heads of Jacob,/For you we hide the roots of dreams/ And let the airy angel's ladders / Sprout like the tendrils of a bed of bindweed.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Synonym of Jacob's ladder",
"A flowering plant of the genus Polemonium."
],
"id": "en-angel's_ladder-en-noun-NzeXZ4uT",
"links": [
[
"Jacob's ladder",
"Jacob's ladder#English"
],
[
"flowering",
"flowering"
],
[
"plant",
"plant"
],
[
"genus",
"genus"
],
[
"Polemonium",
"Polemonium"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1999, Bowker's Directory of Videocassettes for Children, page 969:",
"text": "Phenomena such as angel's ladders, sun dogs, & the coloration of everyday objects will will illustrate the occurence of these different frequencies.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2016, Chuya Koyama, Space Brothers - Volume 25:",
"text": "You can see a beautiful \"angel's ladder\" in the sky!",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2024, Jessie Sale Lloyd, We Costelions, page 186:",
"text": "I supopse after the darkness of night and death's shadows, the soul loves to rise with the sunbeams. Angel's ladders!",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A ray of sunlight descending from between clouds."
],
"id": "en-angel's_ladder-en-noun-R17IJ05s",
"links": [
[
"ray",
"ray"
],
[
"sunlight",
"sunlight"
],
[
"descend",
"descend"
],
[
"between",
"between"
],
[
"cloud",
"cloud"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "16 34 5 27 16 2",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1864, Frances Power Cobbe, An Essay on Intuitive Morals: The Theory of Morals, page 46:",
"text": "At the beginning of the moral life, when we make our first steps towards virtue, all seems weakness, doubt, and hesitation. At the climax of mortal goodness we see that the saint's footing stands secure on the angel's ladder, whose summit is lost in heaven's splendors.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1901 July, Cunningham Geikie, “Lessons From the Past for the Pulpit of To-day: Chrysostom”, in The Homiletic Review, volume 42, number 1, page 9:",
"text": "Prayer was in his eyes an angel's ladder to the heavens, and the shining path by which all blessings descend to the lowly soul.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1990, Curt Leviant, The Man who Thought He was Messiah, page 123:",
"text": "One must descend to lustful night visions before climbing the angel's ladder of sun-filled dreams.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A way to be worthy of heaven; virtue or virtuous living."
],
"id": "en-angel's_ladder-en-noun-7BubWBaj",
"links": [
[
"worthy",
"worthy"
],
[
"heaven",
"heaven"
],
[
"virtue",
"virtue"
],
[
"virtuous",
"virtuous"
],
[
"living",
"living"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figurative) A way to be worthy of heaven; virtue or virtuous living."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "16 34 5 27 16 2",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1879, Charles Edwin Furman, Valley of the Genesee, page 101:",
"text": "When on the summit, we had gone part way Up angel's ladders, toward eternal day.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1965, Garden Journal - Volumes 15-18, page 57:",
"text": "And down, and down we go on this angel's ladder. Antonio appears and disappears at the top of the ravine as the mist thickens and thins, and I know that he is smiling indulgently.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1922, Alexander McConnell, William Revell Moody, Arthur Percy Fitt, Record of Christian Work - Volume 41:",
"text": "If we had eyes to see we should know every common bush as aflame with God and every craggy height as an angel's ladder.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A tall, craggy, cliff."
],
"id": "en-angel's_ladder-en-noun-AD8-dg89",
"links": [
[
"tall",
"tall"
],
[
"craggy",
"craggy"
],
[
"cliff",
"cliff"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figurative) A tall, craggy, cliff."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1850, Nathaniel Parker Willis, Sketches and Pictures, page 208:",
"text": "Vivid as was her admiration, however, she would probably have parted from him without the aspiring venture of loving him, if she had not seen disclosed, in the daily progress of her picture, an angel's ladder by which the heaven of an equality with him might be reached.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1859, John William Jackson, Ecstatics of Genius, page 93:",
"text": "To him, phenomena were but the indications of a power whence they proceeded; the angel's ladder which leads from the world of fact to the heaven of principle, was never absent from his consciousness.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1948, John Wymond, Henry Plauché Dart, The Louisiana Historical Quarterly - Volume 31, page 864:",
"text": "Among his pupils thus discovered and assisted in their first effort to climb the angel's ladder of music, are Fleury-Urban, Durand Hitchcock and Minnie Hauk, now among the most illustrious votaries of art.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2009, Robert Lumsden, Reading Literature After Deconstruction, page 238:",
"text": "Rimbaud has only sarcasm for this reason, \"an angel's ladder of common sense” for this trickery practiced by man who \"proves to himself the obvious, swells with pleasure at repeating his proofs, and lives only for this.\"",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A chain of reasoning or actions that progresses to something sublime."
],
"id": "en-angel's_ladder-en-noun-Fbo1ZzB4",
"links": [
[
"chain",
"chain"
],
[
"reasoning",
"reasoning"
],
[
"action",
"action"
],
[
"progress",
"progress"
],
[
"sublime",
"sublime"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figurative) A chain of reasoning or actions that progresses to something sublime."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
}
],
"word": "angel's ladder"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "angel's ladders",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "angel's ladder (plural angel's ladders)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1850, B. J. Lossing, “The Covenant”, in The Odd-fellows' Offering for 1850, page 108:",
"text": "Nor will the light fade from the vision, when it is turned toward the valley of the shadow of death, if faith shall keep it fixed upon the token of the covenant, for its beautiful arch bridges over the chasm, and like the angel's ladder, in Jacob's dream, it reaches from earth to heaven.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1867, Martha Eugenia Berry, Celesta: A Girl's Book, page 122:",
"text": "She thought of Jacob, with his pillow of stone and his angel's ladder, and then raised her thoughts in prayer.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1869, Nelly Marshall, As by Fire, page 156:",
"text": "And the vistas grew bright with the light of faith; and even as Jacob sleeping at the foot of the angel's ladder, saw that \"all things are less dreadful than they seem,\" she knew that her life would not be barren of joy and comfort.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Synonym of Jacob's ladder",
"A ladder leading to heaven."
],
"links": [
[
"Jacob's ladder",
"Jacob's ladder#English"
],
[
"ladder",
"ladder"
],
[
"heaven",
"heaven"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1892, Ouida, Signa:",
"text": "Who gave the spiderwort to St. Bruno; the black briony for our Lady's Seal; the corn-feverfew to St. Anne; the common bean to St. Ignatius; the bane-berry to St. Christopher; the blue valerian to Jacob for his angel's ladder; the toywort to the shepherds for their purse?",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1894, J. Wood, Voices of the Past, page 33:",
"text": "Give me Consolation; and the Angel's Ladder: And the bright blue flow'r of Happiness, streaked with gold, That blooms only on the hill top; never in crowds: Remember , how happy she was with us.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1968, Commentary - Volume 46, page 92:",
"text": "You heads of Jacob,/For you we hide the roots of dreams/ And let the airy angel's ladders / Sprout like the tendrils of a bed of bindweed.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Synonym of Jacob's ladder",
"A flowering plant of the genus Polemonium."
],
"links": [
[
"Jacob's ladder",
"Jacob's ladder#English"
],
[
"flowering",
"flowering"
],
[
"plant",
"plant"
],
[
"genus",
"genus"
],
[
"Polemonium",
"Polemonium"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1999, Bowker's Directory of Videocassettes for Children, page 969:",
"text": "Phenomena such as angel's ladders, sun dogs, & the coloration of everyday objects will will illustrate the occurence of these different frequencies.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2016, Chuya Koyama, Space Brothers - Volume 25:",
"text": "You can see a beautiful \"angel's ladder\" in the sky!",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2024, Jessie Sale Lloyd, We Costelions, page 186:",
"text": "I supopse after the darkness of night and death's shadows, the soul loves to rise with the sunbeams. Angel's ladders!",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A ray of sunlight descending from between clouds."
],
"links": [
[
"ray",
"ray"
],
[
"sunlight",
"sunlight"
],
[
"descend",
"descend"
],
[
"between",
"between"
],
[
"cloud",
"cloud"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1864, Frances Power Cobbe, An Essay on Intuitive Morals: The Theory of Morals, page 46:",
"text": "At the beginning of the moral life, when we make our first steps towards virtue, all seems weakness, doubt, and hesitation. At the climax of mortal goodness we see that the saint's footing stands secure on the angel's ladder, whose summit is lost in heaven's splendors.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1901 July, Cunningham Geikie, “Lessons From the Past for the Pulpit of To-day: Chrysostom”, in The Homiletic Review, volume 42, number 1, page 9:",
"text": "Prayer was in his eyes an angel's ladder to the heavens, and the shining path by which all blessings descend to the lowly soul.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1990, Curt Leviant, The Man who Thought He was Messiah, page 123:",
"text": "One must descend to lustful night visions before climbing the angel's ladder of sun-filled dreams.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A way to be worthy of heaven; virtue or virtuous living."
],
"links": [
[
"worthy",
"worthy"
],
[
"heaven",
"heaven"
],
[
"virtue",
"virtue"
],
[
"virtuous",
"virtuous"
],
[
"living",
"living"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figurative) A way to be worthy of heaven; virtue or virtuous living."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1879, Charles Edwin Furman, Valley of the Genesee, page 101:",
"text": "When on the summit, we had gone part way Up angel's ladders, toward eternal day.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1965, Garden Journal - Volumes 15-18, page 57:",
"text": "And down, and down we go on this angel's ladder. Antonio appears and disappears at the top of the ravine as the mist thickens and thins, and I know that he is smiling indulgently.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1922, Alexander McConnell, William Revell Moody, Arthur Percy Fitt, Record of Christian Work - Volume 41:",
"text": "If we had eyes to see we should know every common bush as aflame with God and every craggy height as an angel's ladder.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A tall, craggy, cliff."
],
"links": [
[
"tall",
"tall"
],
[
"craggy",
"craggy"
],
[
"cliff",
"cliff"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figurative) A tall, craggy, cliff."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1850, Nathaniel Parker Willis, Sketches and Pictures, page 208:",
"text": "Vivid as was her admiration, however, she would probably have parted from him without the aspiring venture of loving him, if she had not seen disclosed, in the daily progress of her picture, an angel's ladder by which the heaven of an equality with him might be reached.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1859, John William Jackson, Ecstatics of Genius, page 93:",
"text": "To him, phenomena were but the indications of a power whence they proceeded; the angel's ladder which leads from the world of fact to the heaven of principle, was never absent from his consciousness.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1948, John Wymond, Henry Plauché Dart, The Louisiana Historical Quarterly - Volume 31, page 864:",
"text": "Among his pupils thus discovered and assisted in their first effort to climb the angel's ladder of music, are Fleury-Urban, Durand Hitchcock and Minnie Hauk, now among the most illustrious votaries of art.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2009, Robert Lumsden, Reading Literature After Deconstruction, page 238:",
"text": "Rimbaud has only sarcasm for this reason, \"an angel's ladder of common sense” for this trickery practiced by man who \"proves to himself the obvious, swells with pleasure at repeating his proofs, and lives only for this.\"",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A chain of reasoning or actions that progresses to something sublime."
],
"links": [
[
"chain",
"chain"
],
[
"reasoning",
"reasoning"
],
[
"action",
"action"
],
[
"progress",
"progress"
],
[
"sublime",
"sublime"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figurative) A chain of reasoning or actions that progresses to something sublime."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
}
],
"word": "angel's ladder"
}
Download raw JSONL data for angel's ladder meaning in All languages combined (7.5kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (c15a5ce and 5c11237). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.