climbed

Climbed is the simple past tense and past participle of the verb climb. It denotes the act of going upward by one’s own effort or with assistance, such as a person who climbs a hill, a rock face, or a staircase. It can also describe ascent by nonhuman agents, such as vines that climb a trellis.

As a transitive verb, climbed takes a direct object: climbed the mountain, climbed the rope. Intransitively, it describes ascent without a direct object: the temperature climbed, the crowd climbed onto the stage. It is commonly used with prepositions to form phrasal verbs like climb up, climb down, or climb over.

Climbed is a regular verb; the -ed ending marks the past tense. In older forms of English, the simple past was sometimes clomb or clombed, but modern usage of standard English uses climbed exclusively.

Etymology: The verb derives from Old English clīman and shares roots with related Germanic-language terms. The sense has broadened over time from literal ascent to figurative uses, such as climbing the corporate ladder or prices climbing.