Dictionary

pull the ladder up behind oneself en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

Coined by analogy with phrases such as make it to the top and climb the ladder that liken success to an upward struggle.

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) To prevent others from attaining or benefiting from the same advantages, opportunities, or rights as oneself.
   • Environmental concerns were a neat excuse for the industrialized nations to pull the ladder up behind them. 1973, Wade Rowland, The Plot to Save the World: The Life and Times of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, page 47:
   • Commented one senior administrator, “Early in my career another woman said to me, 'When you get where you're going, don't pull the ladder up behind you.' That is the prevalent attitude here." 1994, Tema Frank, Canada's Best Employers for Women: A Guide for Job Hunters, Employees and Employers, page 45:
   • Near-synonym: pull up the drawbridge
   • The odds are that, after the first flush of enthusiasm, a non-proliferation treaty is going to look to many of the have-nots like a device for letting Russia and America scramble on top of their nuclear piles and then pull the ladder up behind them. 1965 July 24, “Shall We Non-Proliferate?”, in The Economist, page 313:

Forms

Relateds

pull the ladder up after oneself · pull up the ladder behind oneself · pull up the ladder

Synonyms

pull up the drawbridge