clamber
Plural: clambers
Noun
- an awkward climb
- "reaching the crest was a real clamber"
- The act of clambering; a difficult or haphazard climb.
Verb
Verb Forms: clambered, clambering, clambers
- To climb, move, or get in or out awkwardly.
- climb awkwardly, as if by scrambling
- To climb (something) with some difficulty, or in a haphazard fashion.
Examples
- He had to CLAMBER through the jumble of letters to find a decent word on his rack.
- The children clambered over the jungle gym.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English clambren, clameren, clemeren (“to climb, clamber; to crawl, creep”), then either:
* possibly from clam, clamb, clemb, past tense of climben (“to climb, get over; to ascend, rise”), and influenced by Old English clæmman (“to press”); or
* from Old English *clambrian, from Proto-Germanic *klambrōną or *klambizōną.
The English word is cognate with Low German klemmern, klempern (“to climb”), Scots clammer (“to clamber”); and compare also Danish klamre (“to cling”), Icelandic klambra, klembra (“to pinch closely together; clamp”), Swedish klamra (“to cling”).
The noun is derived from the verb.
Scrabble Score: 13
clamber: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordclamber: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
clamber: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary