Forms: see the vb.
1. gen. He who or that which climbs.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., clvi. The wyly fox … The clymbare gayte.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, VI. xvi. (1889), 208. I am an ylle clymber and the tree is passynge hyghe.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., July, 11. Great clymbers fall vnsoft.
1639. J. Clarke, Parœmiologia, 23. Hastie climbers have sudden falls.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 3. 27. There are times when a climber has to make up his mind for very unpleasant possibilities.
fig. 1601. Shaks., Jul. C., II. i. 23. Lowlynesse is young Ambitions Ladder, Whereto the Climber vpward turnes his Face.
1752. Johnson, Rambler, No. 192, ¶ 6. Outshone by those whom we considered as climbers upon our ruins.
2. Bot. A plant that climbs or creeps upwards by attaching itself to some support; also as the name of several climbing plants, as Great Wild Climber (Clematis Vitalba in Ray’s Catalogue 1670), Sportsman’s Climber (Cissus venatorum).
1640. in Parkinson Theat. Bot. applied to Clematis Vitalba and other species (Britt. & Holl.)
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 86/1. Climers are such Trees that cannot support themselves but have a Pole.
1777. G. Forster, Voy. round World, I. 175. The intricacy of briars and climbers.
1884. Gardening Illust., 8 Nov., 425/1. The common Hop is one of the best of garden climbers.
3. Ornith. in pl. An order of birds (L. Scansores), characterized by their climbing habits, and commonly having feet with two toes before and two behind.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., I. 172. Climbers are those [birds] the structure of whose feet is calculated for motion on an inclined or vertical surface.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 335. The climbers, such as Parroquets, Toucans, Woodpeckers, &c.
1856. Yarrell, Hist. Birds, II. 138. The third division of the Insessores, or Perching Birds, are the Scansores, or climbers … which most of them have their toes arranged in pairs, or two opposed to two.
4. techn. A spurred boot for climbing (see quot.); also in Locomotive Engines, a driving wheel specially fitted with cogs, pincers, or the like, for work on gradients.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., Climber, a boot provided with spurs, by which a person is enabled to climb telegraph-poles to make repairs or additions to the wires or insulators.
