snakes and ladders

alternative snakes-and-ladders

1. uncountableA children's luck-based board game of Indian origin, played on a numbered grid, the aim of which is to proceed to the end, and in which ladders aid progress and snakes impede it.

   Synonyms: chutes and ladders

2. figurativelyuncountableAny situation in which people or events go forward and backward, seemingly at random.

   But his snakes and ladders career would soon take its biggest hit.

   2009, Kathryn Bonella, Hotel Kerobokan: The Shocking Inside Story of Bali's Most Notorious Jail

   3 more examples

   Teachers, senior teachers, and principal teachers would have built-in status and the scales would offer well-defined career prospects instead of the ambiguous and often misleading snakes-and-ladders situation which at present exists.

   1970, New Scientist, volume 45, numbers 682-694, page 493

   His Mireille has had a snakes-and-ladders career, starting up, going down, then finally rising once more.

   1983, Opera, volume 34, numbers 7-12, page 1295

   As the country continues to wrestle with one of the greatest upheavals to everyday life in recent memory, passenger numbers have had a turbulent 'snakes and ladders' journey - and continue to lag behind pre-pandemic levels.

   2022 March 9, Stefanie Foster, “RAIL Supplement”, in RAIL, number 952, page 3