ramp
verbEtymology From French rampe, from Middle French rampe, deverbal of ramper, from Old French ramper (“to crawl, climb, scale up”), from Frankish *hrampōn (“to contract oneself, wrinkle, rumple, crumple, curve”), from Proto-Germanic *hrimpaną (“to shrivel, shrink”). Cognate with German Rampf (“retraction, curvature, shrinkage, spasm”). Doublet of romp. Akin also to Old English ġehrimpan (“to wrinkle, rimple, rumple”), Old High German rimpfan (German rümpfen (“to wrinkle up”)). Compare Danish rimpe (“to fold" (archaic), "to baste”), Icelandic rimpa. More at rimple.
8 senses
- 1To behave violently; to rage.
- 2To swindle or rob violently.
- 3To search a prisoner or a prisoner's cell.
- 4To spring; to leap; to bound, rear, or prance; to move…
- 5To climb, like a plant; to creep up.
- 6To stand in a rampant position.
- 7To (cause to) change value, often at a steady rate.
- 8To adapt a piece of iron to the woodwork of a gate.
To behave violently; to rage.
- Mick raged and ramped at the barred door till his voice failed,1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XII, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 196:
Slang To swindle or rob violently.
- In English slang, to ramp was to swindle or rob.[2002, William Safire, w:The New York Times Magazine:
Obsolete To spring; to leap; to bound, rear, or prance; to move swiftly or violently.
- Their bridles they would champe, / And trampling the fine element would fiercely rampe.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 28:
- I've seen a ramping equestrian statue of General St. Clare on the Embankment.1911 January 7, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Sign of the Broken Sword”, in The Innocence of Father Brown, London; New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Company, published 1911, →OCLC:
1 more example
- The shield was the colour of silver and across it there ramped a red lion, as bright as a ripe strawberry at the moment when you pick it.1950, C[live] S[taples] Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe […], London: Geoffrey Bles, →OCLC:
Obsolete To climb, like a plant; to creep up.
- Lathyrus ſylveſtris flore luteo. Tare everlaſting. This ramping vvilde Vetch or Tare as the country people call it, becauſe it is the moſt pernicious herbe that can grovv on the earth, for corne or any other good herbe that it ſhall grovv by, killing and ſtrangling them: […]1640, John Parkinson, “Lathyrus. The Great Wilde Cicheling or Pease Everlasting.”, in Theatrum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants. Or, An Herball of a Large Extent: […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, →OCLC, page 1062:
- With claspers and tendrils, they [plants] catch hold, […] and so ramping upon trees, […]they mount up to a great height.1691, John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation. […], London: […] Samuel Smith, […], →OCLC:
Obsolete To stand in a rampant position.
- And that lyon gaped wyde and came vpon hym raumppynge to haue slayne hym.[1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum i”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book IX (in Middle English), [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC:
Ambitransitive To (cause to) change value, often at a steady rate.
- If Q(t)lt;qᵖ then primary generation ramps up at maximal rate, subject to the constraint that Q(t) does not exceed this threshold.2007, Sean Meyn, Control Techniques for Complex Networks, page 285:
- The forces are ramped down gradually to ensure that element removal has a smooth effect on the model.2011, Sheng Liu, Yong Liu, Modeling and Simulation for Microelectronic Packaging Assembly:
To adapt a piece of iron to the woodwork of a gate.
- Derived terms
- deramp, rampable, ramp along, ramper, ramp up