"climb down" meaning in English

See climb down in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-climb down.ogg Forms: climb downs [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} climb down (plural climb downs)
  1. (idiomatic, sometimes hyphenated) An abandonment, withdrawal from, or softening of a previously expressed opinion, policy, argument, etc. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-climb_down-en-noun-JfXRJjuC

Verb

Audio: en-au-climb down.ogg Forms: climbs down [present, singular, third-person], climbing down [participle, present], climbed down [participle, past], climbed down [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} climb down (third-person singular simple present climbs down, present participle climbing down, simple past and past participle climbed down)
  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see climb, down. Synonyms: climb-down, backpedal
    Sense id: en-climb_down-en-verb-KeY5G4GC Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English phrasal verbs formed with "down", English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys, Pages with 1 entry Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 19 60 21 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 19 60 21 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "down": 15 65 20 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 22 54 23 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 18 62 20
  2. (idiomatic, sometimes followed by from) To abandon, withdraw from, or soften a previously expressed opinion, argument, etc. Tags: idiomatic, sometimes
    Sense id: en-climb_down-en-verb-XWUXGDZd

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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      "form": "climb downs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  ],
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  "senses": [
    {
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003 August 7, “Hope for Korea”, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, retrieved 2011-06-30, page A20:",
          "text": "It is interesting to speculate on what combination of factors acted within the Bush administration to bring about the climb-down from its previous position.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003 September 27, “Mulyam shows his ‘secular’ face again, hits out at BJP”, in India Times, retrieved 2011-06-30:",
          "text": "His climb-down from the \"hard, secular\" image was mainly to widen his support base.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 April 24, “Editorial: Dalton McGuinty schooled on sex ed”, in Toronto Sun, Canada, retrieved 2011-06-30:",
          "text": "Hours before his climb down, the premier's own cabinet ministers had vigorously defended the curriculum.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An abandonment, withdrawal from, or softening of a previously expressed opinion, policy, argument, etc."
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      "id": "en-climb_down-en-noun-JfXRJjuC",
      "links": [
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          "withdrawal"
        ],
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          "soften",
          "soften"
        ],
        [
          "opinion",
          "opinion"
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        [
          "policy",
          "policy"
        ],
        [
          "argument",
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      "qualifier": "sometimes hyphenated",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, sometimes hyphenated) An abandonment, withdrawal from, or softening of a previously expressed opinion, policy, argument, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
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    }
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}

{
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    },
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      "form": "climbing down",
      "tags": [
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        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "climbed down",
      "tags": [
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      "form": "climbed down",
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      ],
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        {
          "text": "It took 4 hours to climb up, and just 2 to climb down.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see climb, down."
      ],
      "id": "en-climb_down-en-verb-KeY5G4GC",
      "links": [
        [
          "climb",
          "climb#English"
        ],
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          "down",
          "down#English"
        ]
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        {
          "_dis1": "7 87 6",
          "word": "climb-down"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "word": "backpedal"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1992 July 27, Paul Lewis, “Inspectors begin search in Baghdad”, in The Day, Connecticut, USA, retrieved 2011-06-30, page A5:",
          "text": "But Ekeus said Iraq had climbed down in its confrontation with the UN.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993 May 24, Michael Kramer, “The Political Interest: Drawing a Line in the Quicksand”, in Time:",
          "text": "No, but it may be a way for Clinton to climb down from a policy he seems increasingly to view as a no-win proposition.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2001 June 7, Morton Kondracke, “Quit arguing and develop policy to end energy woes”, in Reading Eagle, USA, retrieved 2011-06-30, page B9:",
          "text": "If they are interested in climbing down from their oppositionism, Democrats ought to consult the Progressive Policy Institute, which has been critical of Bush, but which is developing a balanced, positive approach to the energy crisis.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To abandon, withdraw from, or soften a previously expressed opinion, argument, etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-climb_down-en-verb-XWUXGDZd",
      "links": [
        [
          "from",
          "from#English"
        ],
        [
          "abandon",
          "abandon"
        ],
        [
          "withdraw",
          "withdraw"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, sometimes followed by from) To abandon, withdraw from, or soften a previously expressed opinion, argument, etc."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "followed by from"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "sometimes"
      ]
    }
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      "audio": "en-au-climb down.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ac/En-au-climb_down.ogg/En-au-climb_down.ogg.mp3",
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          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003 September 27, “Mulyam shows his ‘secular’ face again, hits out at BJP”, in India Times, retrieved 2011-06-30:",
          "text": "His climb-down from the \"hard, secular\" image was mainly to widen his support base.",
          "type": "quote"
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        {
          "ref": "2010 April 24, “Editorial: Dalton McGuinty schooled on sex ed”, in Toronto Sun, Canada, retrieved 2011-06-30:",
          "text": "Hours before his climb down, the premier's own cabinet ministers had vigorously defended the curriculum.",
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        "(idiomatic, sometimes hyphenated) An abandonment, withdrawal from, or softening of a previously expressed opinion, policy, argument, etc."
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      "word": "climb-down"
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  "word": "climb down"
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          "text": "But Ekeus said Iraq had climbed down in its confrontation with the UN.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993 May 24, Michael Kramer, “The Political Interest: Drawing a Line in the Quicksand”, in Time:",
          "text": "No, but it may be a way for Clinton to climb down from a policy he seems increasingly to view as a no-win proposition.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2001 June 7, Morton Kondracke, “Quit arguing and develop policy to end energy woes”, in Reading Eagle, USA, retrieved 2011-06-30, page B9:",
          "text": "If they are interested in climbing down from their oppositionism, Democrats ought to consult the Progressive Policy Institute, which has been critical of Bush, but which is developing a balanced, positive approach to the energy crisis.",
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        }
      ],
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        "To abandon, withdraw from, or soften a previously expressed opinion, argument, etc."
      ],
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          "from",
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        ],
        [
          "abandon",
          "abandon"
        ],
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      ],
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        "(idiomatic, sometimes followed by from) To abandon, withdraw from, or soften a previously expressed opinion, argument, etc."
      ],
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        "followed by from"
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "backpedal"
    },
    {
      "word": "climb-down"
    }
  ],
  "word": "climb down"
}

Download raw JSONL data for climb down meaning in English (5.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-09-22 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-09-20 using wiktextract (af5c55c and 66545a6). 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.