"snakes and ladders" meaning in English

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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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      "glosses": [
        "A children's luck-based board game of Indian origin, played on a numbered grid, the aim of which is to proceed to the end, and in which ladders aid progress and snakes impede it."
      ],
      "id": "en-snakes_and_ladders-en-noun-31one-1E",
      "links": [
        [
          "board game",
          "board game"
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        [
          "ladder",
          "ladder"
        ],
        [
          "snake",
          "snake"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "83 17",
          "word": "back to square one"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "83 17",
          "word": "swings and roundabouts"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "76 24",
          "word": "chutes and ladders"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "76 24",
          "word": "snakes-and-ladders"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1970, New Scientist, volume 45, numbers 682-694, page 493:",
          "text": "Teachers, senior teachers, and principal teachers would have built-in status and the scales would offer well-defined career prospects instead of the ambiguous and often misleading snakes-and-ladders situation which at present exists.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1983, Opera, volume 34, numbers 7-12, page 1295:",
          "text": "His Mireille has had a snakes-and-ladders career, starting up, going down, then finally rising once more.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Kathryn Bonella, Hotel Kerobokan: The Shocking Inside Story of Bali's Most Notorious Jail:",
          "text": "But his snakes and ladders career would soon take its biggest hit.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 March 9, Stefanie Foster, “RAIL Supplement”, in RAIL, number 952, page 3:",
          "text": "As the country continues to wrestle with one of the greatest upheavals to everyday life in recent memory, passenger numbers have had a turbulent 'snakes and ladders' journey - and continue to lag behind pre-pandemic levels.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "any situation in which people or events go forward and backward, seemingly at random"
      ],
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      "links": [
        [
          "at random",
          "at random"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) any situation in which people or events go forward and backward, seemingly at random"
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  "wikipedia": [
    "snakes and ladders"
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  "word": "snakes and ladders"
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      "word": "back to square one"
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      "word": "swings and roundabouts"
    }
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  "senses": [
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        "A children's luck-based board game of Indian origin, played on a numbered grid, the aim of which is to proceed to the end, and in which ladders aid progress and snakes impede it."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "board game",
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          "ladder",
          "ladder"
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          "snake"
        ]
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        {
          "ref": "1970, New Scientist, volume 45, numbers 682-694, page 493:",
          "text": "Teachers, senior teachers, and principal teachers would have built-in status and the scales would offer well-defined career prospects instead of the ambiguous and often misleading snakes-and-ladders situation which at present exists.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1983, Opera, volume 34, numbers 7-12, page 1295:",
          "text": "His Mireille has had a snakes-and-ladders career, starting up, going down, then finally rising once more.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Kathryn Bonella, Hotel Kerobokan: The Shocking Inside Story of Bali's Most Notorious Jail:",
          "text": "But his snakes and ladders career would soon take its biggest hit.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 March 9, Stefanie Foster, “RAIL Supplement”, in RAIL, number 952, page 3:",
          "text": "As the country continues to wrestle with one of the greatest upheavals to everyday life in recent memory, passenger numbers have had a turbulent 'snakes and ladders' journey - and continue to lag behind pre-pandemic levels.",
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        "(figuratively) any situation in which people or events go forward and backward, seemingly at random"
      ],
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "chutes and ladders"
    },
    {
      "word": "snakes-and-ladders"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "snakes and ladders"
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