clamber
Other forms: clambered; clambering; clambers
To clamber is to climb awkwardly. Hamlet's Ophelia was said to have been clambering on a weak branch of a willow when she met her "muddy death." It's never a good idea to clamber, let alone on weak willow branches.
We associate the word clamber far more often with toddlers (than Shakespearean tragedy). Toddlers are known for naturally clumsy, ill-coordinated movements we deem cute not foolish. Suitably enough, the word comes from the delightful and long obsolete Middle English word clamb, meaning the past tense of climb, a word that has all the happy logic of a toddler's imagination.
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climb awkwardly, as if by scrambling
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an awkward climb
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Vocabulary lists containing clamber
On his eleventh birthday, orphan Harry Potter learns the shocking truth: he's a wizard about to begin his education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
After emigrating from Barbados to Connecticut Colony, sixteen-year-old Katherine (Kit) Tyler finds herself at odds with her Puritan neighbors, which turns dangerous when she befriends a Quaker woman accused of being a witch.
Billy saves enough money to buy two pups, Old Dan and Little Ann. Together they become one of the best hunting teams in the Ozarks—and devoted friends as well. But when the unthinkable happens, Billy must learn how to nurture hope in a time of tragedy.