Meaning & use
climb the walls
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Meaning
phraseidiomfigurative
To feel extremely restless, bored or anxious, especially when you are stuck inside or waiting.
Grammar: Often used in the continuous: I'm climbing the walls.
Patterns
- be climbing the walls
- climb the walls with something
After a week of rain, the kids were climbing the walls.
I was climbing the walls waiting for the test results.
He starts climbing the walls if he has nothing to do.
Word forms
| third person singular | climbs the walls |
|---|---|
| past tense | climbed the walls |
| -ing form | climbing the walls |
Common combinations
- practically climbing the walls
- By day ten of quarantine I was practically climbing the walls.
- climb the walls with boredom
- We climbed the walls with boredom on the long flight.
- climbing the walls waiting
- She was climbing the walls waiting for the call.
- start climbing the walls
- Puppies start climbing the walls without exercise.
Synonyms and how they differ
- go stir-crazy
- Go stir-crazy specifically means being driven mad by being confined, while climbing the walls can also come from worry.
- go up the wall
- Go up the wall is a British variant that stresses anger as well as restlessness.
- be on edge
- Be on edge describes nervous tension but without the sense of extreme restless energy.
- be restless
- Be restless is plain and mild, while climbing the walls is dramatic exaggeration.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: climb the walls or drive someone up the wall?
climb the walls vs drive someone up the wall
Drive someone up the wall means to annoy someone greatly, with the other person as the cause.
Practice
After three days stuck in the house with the flu, Omar was ___.
Choose one answer.
Climbing the walls means restless with boredom. Hitting the roof means furious, and walking on air means very happy.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “climb the walls”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.