Jacob's ladder
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Jacob's ladder¹
Where it comes from
After the Biblical Jacob's Ladder.
noun Jacob's ladders · Jacob's-ladder · Jacob's Ladder
-
A ladder leading to heaven.
Jacob's ladder; Christ is Jacob's ladder that reacheth up to heaven; and he that refuseth to go by this ladder thither, will scarce by other means get up so high.
Similar: angel's ladder
- A flowering plant of the genus Polemonium. Hetty could have cast all her past life behind her and never cared to be reminded of it again. I think she had no feeling at all towards the old house, and did not like the Jacob's Ladder and the long row of hollyhocks in the garden better than other flowers—perhaps not so well.
- A rope ladder from the ratline to the upper mast. And this is one of the signs by which you can tell a man-of-war from a merchantman, for in war-ships the catch ratline is on the aftermost shroud instead of on the foremost. In a man-of-war, too, the topgallant-rigging is never rattled down, as a Jacob's ladder leads from the topgallantmast-head dow
- A toy consisting of blocks of wood, held together by strings or ribbons, that appear to cascade downward as they flip over.
- A pocketknife consisting of two handle segments joined by a pivot, with a blade connected by a second pivot to the end of one handle segment.
- A noncompact surface resembling a ladder made of handlebodies. The infinite Loch Ness monster and Jacob's ladder (Figure 12.1.1) are diffeomorphic surfaces.
- A high-voltage electrical device, often used as a visual effect in old movies, which has a pair of vertical electrodes that form an arc between them starting at the bottom, rising to the top, then repeating. Jacob’s Ladder displays are sometimes found in science museums and centers. In demonstrations, an electric spark jumps between two parallel wires when electrons fed into one of the wires repel each other, heating up the surrounding air so the spark rises with the hot air before dying at the top of t
- A serving of short ribs.
- A ladder or run in an item of hosiery. [T]he left leg of her tights has exhibited symptoms of the defect in the warp known as a "Jacob's ladder."
Jacob's Ladder²
noun Jacob's Ladders
- Alternative letter-case form of Jacob's ladder
Translations
Every language
noun flowering plant
| 日本語 | 花忍 hanashinobu |
|---|---|
| 中文 | 花荵 huārěn |
| Deutsch | Jakobsleiter, Himmelsleiter, Sperrkraut |
noun rope ladder to the upper masts
| Deutsch | Jakobsleiter, Lotsentreppe |
|---|
noun toy
| Deutsch | Jakobsleiter |
|---|
noun high-voltage device
| Deutsch | Jakobsleiter |
|---|
Talk about this word "Jacob's ladder." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/jacob's%20ladder. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. Jacob's ladder. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/jacob's%20ladder "Jacob's ladder." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/jacob's%20ladder.Cite this
@misc{jacob_s_ladder_2026,
title = {Jacob's ladder},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/jacob's%20ladder},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
