English▸ noun
1 a piece of equipment consisting of a series of bars or steps between two upright lengths of wood, metal, or rope, used for climbing up or down something.
▪ a series of ascending stages by which someone or something may progress:
employees on their way up the career ladder.
2 British English a vertical strip of unravelled fabric in tights or stockings:
one of Sally's stockings developed a ladder.
▸ verb British English (with reference to tights or stockings) develop or cause to develop a ladder:
[with object] I laddered my tights as I arrived this morning
[no object] the first time I put them on, one of the stockings laddered.
– ORIGIN Old English hlǣd(d)er, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch leer and German Leiter.