climax

plural climaxes · plural rare climaces

1. countableuncountableA rhetorical device in which a series is arranged in ascending order.

   Climax, by steps advancing, onward goes Higher and still more high to an impassion'd close.

   1835, L[arret] Langley, “[Rhetorical Figures.] Climax.”, in A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster, South Yorkshire: […] C. White, […], →OCLC, page 26

   1 more example

   Ye haue a figure which as well by his Greeke and Latine originals […] may be called the marching figure […] and goeth as it were by ſtrides or paces; it may aſwell by called the clyming figure, for Clymax is as much to ſay as a ladder,[…]

   1589 June, George Puttenham, chapter 19, in Edward Arber, editor, The Arte of English Poesie, volume 3, London, published 1869, page 217

   Synonyms: incrementum

2. countableobsoleteuncountableAn instance of such an ascending series.

   […]Expressions for the whole Climax of sensibility[…]

   1781, John Moore, chapter VI, in A view of society and manners in Italy, volume I, page 63

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   The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced them with a confinement in the fortress of Chunargar. Thus, my lords, was a British garrison made the climax of cruelties!

   1788 June, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “Mr. Sheridan’s Speech, on Summing Up the Evidence on the Second, or Begum Charge against Warren Hastings, Esq., Delivered before the High Court of Parliament, June 1788”, in Select Speeches, Forensick and Parliamentary, with Prefatory Remarks by N[athaniel] Chapman, M.D., volume I, [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Published by Hopkins and Earle, no. 170, Market Street, published 1808, →OCLC, page 474

3. countableuncountablehuman sciencesThe culmination of a narrative's rising action, the turning point.

   As a trafficker in climaxes and thrills and characterization and wonderful dialogue and suspense and confrontations, I had outlined the Dresden story many times.

   1969 March 31, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., chapter 1, in Slaughterhouse-Five […] (A Seymour Lawrence Book), New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →OCLC, page 4

   Synonyms: payoff

4. countableoftenuncountableA culmination or acme: the last term in an ascending series, particularly

   In the accomplishment of this, they frequently reach the climax of absurdity.

   1789, Trifler, 448, No. XXXV

5. A culmination or acme: the last term in an ascending series
   1. countableoftenrhetoricuncountableimpreciseThe final term of a rhetorical climax.

      When he adds epithets of praise, his climax is ‘so English’.

      1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, chapter IX, in English Traits, page 147

   2. countableoftenuncountablebiologyA relatively stable community of organisms, resulting from ecological succession, a successful adaptation to a relatively stable environment.

      Near-synonyms: old-growth, mature ecosystem

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      The succession of associations leading to a climax represents the process of adjustment to the conditions of stress, and the climax represents a condition of relative equilibrium. Climax associations[…] are the resultants of certain climatic, geological[…] conditions.

      1915 July 17, Bulletin of the Illinois State Laboratory

      Synonyms: old-growth, mature ecosystem

   3. countableeuphemisticoftenuncountableThe culmination of sexual pleasure, an orgasm.

      What's the use of bringing some high schooler to climax?

      1980, Paul Schrader, American Gigolo, spoken by Julian Kaye (Richard Gere)

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      In many cases the man's climax comes so swiftly that the woman's reactions are not nearly ready.

      1918, Marie Carmichael Stopes, Married love, section 50

present singular third person climaxes · participle present climaxing · participle past climaxed · past climaxed

1. ambitransitiveTo reach or bring to a climax (in any sense).

   I have never been able to climax during sex. Is my masturbation style to blame? [title]

   2023 May 30, Pamela Stephenson Connolly, “I have never been able to climax during sex. Is my masturbation style to blame?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   3 more examples

   All our memories are burning in time / Like a bittersweet perfume / Can you tell me how a love that's so fine / Could have climaxed in a single afternoon?

   1978, Bionic Boogie, “Hot Butterfly”, in Gregg Diamond Bionic Boogie – Hot Butterfly (performed by Luther Vandross)

   Huntsman starts out with a vision of Theron that’s specific, unique, and weighted in character, but it trends throughout toward generic fantasy tropes and black-and-white morality, and climaxes in a thoroughly familiar face-off.

   2012 May 31, Tasha Robinson, “Snow White And The Huntsman”, in AV Club

   Frank had two bouts in October of 1954, losing them both, and then climaxed his career with a 6-round decision victory over Mickey Warner on December 1, 1954.

   2018, Craig Snyder, The Boxers of Youngstown Ohio

2. transitiveTo form the climax to; to be the climax of.

   A group of about 50 people, mostly young adults and teenagers, charged into a city park where gay people were having a swimming party on June 8. Gay people were attacked, climaxing a year in which this conservative Ohio city [Cincinnati] has become aware of its gay population.

   1979 August 4, Walter Williams, “Swimmers Attacked”, in Gay Community News, page 3

comparative more climax · superlative most climax

1. biologyBeing a climax species or climax community of organisms; able to remain essentially unchanged (in terms of the portion of the species in its area it constitutes) as long as its site remains unchanged.

   Lodgepole pine is a good example. On poor sites such as the obsidian sands of Yellowstone Park it is climax. On nearby zonal soils it is seral to subalpine fir.

   1979, Proceedings of the ... Convention of the Society of American Foresters, page 160

   2 more examples

   [The] tree which here is "more pioneer" and the one which is "more climax" do not differ from each other by this vegetational character alone. Most of the tree species which are "more pioneer" are conifers, those which are "more climax" are hardwoods.

   1954, William Louis Culberson, The Corticolous Lichen and Bryophyte Communities of the ..., page 158

   [page 412:] […] evidence that beech is more climax than hemlock in this area (Brown and Curtis 1952). [page 417:] beech in this area is as climax as sugar maple.

   1956, Ecology, volume 37

1. A village in the Rural Municipality of Lone Tree No. 18, Saskatchewan, Canada.
2. A number of places in the United States:
   1. An unincorporated community and mining location in Lake County, Colorado.
   2. A small town in Decatur County, Georgia.
   3. A minor city in Greenwood County, Kansas.
   4. An unincorporated community in Rockcastle County, Kentucky.
   5. A village and township in Kalamazoo County, Michigan.
   6. A minor city in Polk County, Minnesota.
   7. A hamlet in Greene County, New York.
   8. An unincorporated community in Guilford County and Randolph County, North Carolina.
   9. An unincorporated community in Morrow County, Ohio.
   10. An unincorporated community in Jackson County, Oregon.
   11. An unincorporated community in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania.
   12. An unincorporated community in Collin County, Texas.
   13. An unincorporated community in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.