What is "ladder"

Ladder \Lad"der\ (l[a^]d"d[~e]r), n. [OE. laddre, AS. hl[=ae]der, hl[=ae]dder; akin to OFries. hladder, OHG. leitara, G. leiter, and from the root of E. lean, v.

1. A frame usually portable, of wood, metal, or rope, for ascent and descent, consisting of two side pieces to which are fastened cross strips or rounds forming steps.

   Some the engines play, And some, more bold, mount ladders to the fire.
   --Dryden.

2. That which resembles a ladder in form or use; hence, that by means of which one attains to eminence; as, to climb the corporate ladder.

   Lowliness is young ambition's ladder.
   --Shak.

   Fish ladder. See under Fish.

   Ladder beetle (Zo["o]l.), an American leaf beetle ( Chrysomela scalaris). The elytra are silvery white, striped and spotted with green; the under wings are rose-colored. It feeds upon the linden tree.

   Ladder handle, an iron rail at the side of a vertical fixed ladder, to grasp with the hand in climbing.

   Ladder shell (Zo["o]l.), a spiral marine shell of the genus Scalaria. See Scalaria.

Old English hlæder "ladder, steps," from Proto-Germanic *khlaidri (cognates: Old Frisian hledere, Middle Dutch ledere, Old High German leitara, German Leiter), from PIE root *klei- "to lean" (cognates: Greek klimax "ladder;" see lean (v.)). In late Old English, rungs were læddrestæfæ and the side pieces were ledder steles. The belief that walking under one brings bad luck is attested from 1787, but its origin likely is more pragmatic than symbolic. Ladder-back (adj.) as a type of chair is from 1898.

n. 1 A frame, usually portable, of wood, metal, or rope, used for ascent and descent, consisting of two side pieces to which are fastened rungs: cross strips or rounds acting as steps. 2 (context figuratively English) A series of stages by which one progresses to a better position. 3 # The hierarchy or ranking system within an organization, e.g. the corporate ladder. 4 (context chiefly British English) A length of unravelled fabric in a knitted garment, especially in nylon stockings; a run. 5 In the game of go, a sequence of moves following a zigzag pattern and ultimately leading to the capture of the attacked stones. vb. 1 (context firefighting English) To ascend a building or wall using a ladder. 2 (context of a knitted garment English) To develop a #Noun_knit as a result of a broken thread.

v. come unraveled or undone as if by snagging; "Her nylons were running" [syn: run]

1. n. steps consisting of two parallel members connected by rungs; for climbing up or down

2. ascending stages by which somebody or something can progress; "he climbed the career ladder"

3. a row of unravelled stitches; "she got a run in her stocking" [syn: run, ravel]

A ladder is a vertical or inclined set of rungs or steps. There are two types: rigid ladders that can be leaned against a vertical surface such as a wall, and rope ladders that are hung from the top. The vertical members of a rigid ladder are called stringers or rails (US) or stiles (UK). Rigid ladders are usually portable, but some types are permanently fixed to buildings. They are commonly made of metal, wood, or fiberglass, but they have been known to be made of tough plastic.

Ladder is a barrel-jumping game (like Donkey Kong) written for the CP/M operating system and made to be operated on the early Kaypro line of luggable computers.

Since the screens on these computers only accept text characters and not rendered graphics, the game uses letters, numbers, and symbols lined up to create walls and platforms, pits/traps, characters, trampolines and goals.

The floors in Ladder are made of equal signs, and the ladders themselves are made of capital "H"s stacked on top of each other. The "lad" controlled by the player starts out as the letter "P", and barrels ("der rocks") are represented by "o"s.

The catchphrase of the game reminded the acolyte player that there are more ways than one to skin a cat. This referred to the fact that the minimized traverse of almost all levels could be enhanced by inventive utilisation of the game features, and the highest levels absolutely required it. These could entail (at the apex of the game) for instance jumping on a trampoline at precisely the right speed and point of impact to fall into one of the pit/traps, at the right timing that there would be no barrels passing for a sufficient interval.

Along with Star Trek, CatChum and Aliens, Ladder was one of the games that came with the software bundle of the early Kaypro computers.

Ladder was written by Yahoo Software of Los Angeles, California.

A ladder is a runged climbing aid.

Ladder, The Ladder, or Ladders may also refer to:

• League table or ladder, a chart or table which compares sports teams, or other entities, by ranking them in order of ability or achievement
• A vertical split in the fabric of a pair of tights (UK terminology; "a run in pantyhose" is the US equivalent)
• Ladder frame, a vehicle frame type
• Laddering, an investment technique
• Ladder logic, a philosophy of drawing electrical logic schematics
• Ladder tournament, a type of game or sports tournament
• Resistor ladder, an analogue circuit
• DNA ladder, a molecular-weight size marker used in gel electrophoresis

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A ladder shape for black (it is white's move). Black will win this ladder battle due to the marked black stone, which will put the white stone that will be played at the spot indicated by a into atari; if the marked stone did not exist, then white would inevitably win when the regular pattern of play extended to the edge of the board. A broken ladder is full of opportunities for a double atari on white, such as positions c and d.

In the game of Go, a is a basic sequence of moves in which an attacker pursues a group in atari in a zig-zag pattern across the board. If there are no intervening stones, the group will hit the edge of the board and be captured.

The sequence is so basic that there is a Go proverb saying "if you don't know ladders, don't play Go."

The ladder tactic is often a failure, if there are stones supporting those being chased close enough to the diagonal path of the ladder. Such a failing ladder is called a broken ladder. Secondary double threat tactics around ladders, involving playing a stone in such a way as to break the ladder and also create some other possibility, are potentially very complex. Such plays are called ladder-breakers.