JACOB'S LADDER • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Jacob's ladder

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/dʒˈeɪkəbz lˈædər/ Listen

noun

Jacob n. A Hebrew patriarch (son of Isaac, and ancestor of the Jews), who in a vision saw a ladder reaching up to heaven (); also called Israel. "And Jacob said... with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands." "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel."

Jacob's ladder.

(a)

(Bot.) A perennial herb of the genus Polemonium (Polemonium coeruleum), having corymbs of drooping flowers, usually blue. Gray.

(b)

(Naut.) A rope ladder, with wooden steps, for going aloft.

(c)

(Naut.) A succession of short cracks in a defective spar.

Jacob's membrane. See Retina.

Jacob's staff.

(a)

A name given to many forms of staff or weapon, especially in the Middle Ages; a pilgrim's staff. (Obs.)

(b)

(Surveying) See under Staff.

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Etymology of 'Jacob's ladder'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Jacob's ladder" Quotes from Famous Books

... were out in a trice: a sapling was procured, and cut into short pieces; these were notched, and tied at intervals along the rope. Our "Jacob's ladder" was ready. ...

— The War Trail - The Hunt of the Wild Horse • Mayne Reid

... the heart that keeps its twilight hour, And, in the depths of heavenly peace reclined, Loves to commune with thoughts of tender power,— Thoughts that ascend, like angels beautiful, A shining Jacob's ladder of the mind! Sonnet IX. ...

— The World's Best Poetry -- Volume 10 • Various

... this person, as soon as near enough to salute the party at the foot of the flag-staff; "good-morrow to ye all. I'm glad to meet you, for it's but a Jacob's ladder, this path of yours, through the ravine in the cliffs. Hey! why Atwood," looking around him at the sea of vapour, in surprise, "what the devil ...

— The Two Admirals • J. Fenimore Cooper

... left up yonder in the cliffs. Now, then, I'm going down again. It's quite dry, and worn smooth with all sorts of things coming up and folk like us going down. Just the same as before, my lad. I calls it Jacob's Ladder. Natur' made a good deal on it, and my grandfathers, fathers, and us lot finished it a bit at a time and made ...

— The Lost Middy - Being the Secret of the Smugglers' Gap • George Manville Fenn

... eye, projecting from the top of the broad steep gully in which it was stretched at ease. Thither few came to the droning coast; and such as did, looked up at the High Street baking in the sun, and, thinking of Jacob's ladder, composed them to slumber upon the sand and left the climbing to the angels. Here, I said, the air and the sea were so still that one could hear the oysters snoring in their beds; and the little frizzle of surf on the beach was ...

— At a Winter's Fire • Bernard Edward J. Capes

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