ramp

• IPA^(key): /ɹæmp/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æmp

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.

ramp (plural ramps)

2. An inclined surface that connects two levels; an incline.
3. An interchange, a road that connects a freeway to a surface street or another freeway.
4. A structure with an inclined surface made for stunts, as for jumping motorcycles or other vehicles.
5. (aviation) A mobile staircase that is attached to the doors of an aircraft at an airport.
6. (cricket) A way of hitting a boundary by facing the bat face front and pushing with force to launch the ball. 100% of it done against pace.

   He hit three ramps in a row to push his team near the opponents total.

7. (aviation) A large parking area in an airport for aircraft, for loading and unloading or for storage (see also apron and tarmac).
8. (aviation) A surface inside the air intake of a supersonic aircraft which adjusts in position to allow for efficient shock wave compression of incoming air at a wide range of different Mach numbers.
9. (skating) A construction used to do skating tricks, usually in the form of part of a pipe.
10. A scale of values.
    • 2003, Julio Sanchez, Maria P. Canton, The PC Graphics Handbook, page 915:

      The RGB model uses the color component of light sources in order to produce more realistic and pleasant results. Internal color representations are always based on a palette-based color ramp.

    • 2013, Sam Kauffmann, Ashley Kennedy, Avid Editing: A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users, page 40:

      We have created a volume ramp. Play the section in the Timeline and listen to the volume change.

11. A speed bump. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
12. (slang) An act of violent robbery.
13. (slang) A deliberate swindle or fraud.
    • 1819, Steven Poole, Steven Poole's word of the week‎^[1]:

      We are surely not meant to think of the sense of “ramp” (from 1819) that means a deliberate swindle or fraud, such as announcing that you have done more tests than you actually have because a third were just posted out.

14. (Australia, slang) A search, conducted by authorities, of a prisoner or a prisoner's cell.
15. (obsolete) A leap or bound.
16. A concave bend at the top or cap of a railing, wall, or coping; a romp.

ramp (third-person singular simple present ramps, present participle ramping, simple past and past participle ramped)

1. To behave violently; to rage.
   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XII, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 196:

     Mick raged and ramped at the barred door till his voice failed,

2. (slang, transitive) To swindle or rob violently.
   • [2002, William Safire, w:The New York Times Magazine‎^[2]:

     In English slang, to ramp was to swindle or rob.]

3. (Australia, slang, transitive) To search a prisoner or a prisoner's cell.
4. (obsolete, intransitive) To spring; to leap; to bound, rear, or prance; to move swiftly or violently.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 28:

     Their bridles they would champe, / And trampling the fine element would fiercely rampe.

   • 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:

     I've seen a ramping equestrian statue of General St. Clare on the Embankment.

   • 1950, C[live] S[taples] Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe […], London: Geoffrey Bles, →OCLC:

     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.

5. (obsolete, intransitive) To climb, like a plant; to creep up.
   • 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:

     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: […]

   • 1691, John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation. […], London: […] Samuel Smith, […], →OCLC:

     With claspers and tendrils, they [plants] catch hold, […] and so ramping upon trees, […] they mount up to a great height.

6. (obsolete, intransitive) To stand in a rampant position.
   • [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:

     And that lyon gaped wyde and came vpon hym raumppynge to haue slayne hym.

     And that lion gaped wide and came upon him ramping to have slain him.]

7. (ambitransitive) To (cause to) change value, often at a steady rate.
   • 2007, Sean Meyn, Control Techniques for Complex Networks, page 285:

     If ${\displaystyle Q(t)<q^{p}}$ then primary generation ramps up at maximal rate, subject to the constraint that ${\displaystyle Q(t)}$ does not exceed this threshold.

   • 2011, Sheng Liu, Yong Liu, Modeling and Simulation for Microelectronic Packaging Assembly:

     The forces are ramped down gradually to ensure that element removal has a smooth effect on the model.

8. To adapt a piece of iron to the woodwork of a gate.

• rampage
• rampant

See ramson. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

ramp (plural ramps)

1. An American plant, Allium tricoccum, related to the onion; a wild leek.
   • 2006, Su Clauson-Wicker, Off the Beaten Path West Virginia, volume 6, page 61:

     A ramp is a potently flavored wild scallion, a vegetable with staying power.

2. (Appalachia or obsolete) A promiscuous man or woman.
   • 1728, John Dennis, Remarks on Mr. Pope's Rape of the lock. In several letters to a friend. With a preface, occasion'd by the late Treatise on the profound, and the Dunciad., London: J. Roberts, page 16:

     And yet in the very next Canto she appears an arrant Ramp and a Tomrigg; […]

3. (Appalachia, derogatory) A worthless person.

• (Allium tricoccum): ramps, rams, ramson, ramsons, wild leek

• buckram

• Allium tricoccum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Allium tricoccum on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Allium tricoccum on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• ramp at USDA Plants database

• MRAP, PRAM, parm, pram

From Middle Dutch ramp (“misfortune”). Related to rimpel (“wrinkle”). In the 19th century, the grammatical gender of the word was a matter of debate. It was finally standardized as feminine, departing from its historical masculine gender.

• IPA^(key): /rɑmp/
• Hyphenation: ramp
• Rhymes: -ɑmp

ramp f (plural rampen, diminutive rampje n)

1. disaster, catastrophe

   Mensen wensen geluk en welvaart en verafschuwen ongeluk en rampen

   People wish happiness and prosperity and abhor mishap and disasters

2. an accident

• catastrofe
• ongeluk

• kernramp
• olieramp
• rampenzender
• rampspoed
• ramptoerisme

Borrowed from French rampe, back-formation of Old French ramper, from Frankish *rampōn, *hrampōn (“to contract oneself”).

• IPA^(key): /rɑmp/
• Hyphenation: ramp
• Rhymes: -ɑmp

ramp f (plural rampen, diminutive rampje n)

1. a ramp
2. a driveway

• (ramp): helling
• (driveway): oprit

• oprijramp

Borrowed from English ramp, from French rampe.

• (Netherlands) IPA^(key): /rɛmp/, [ɹæmp]

• Hyphenation: ramp
• Rhymes: -ɛmp

ramp m (plural ramps, diminutive rampje n)

1. (skating) a construction to do skating tricks, usually in the form of one half of a pipe, a half-pipe

• Rhymes: -am̥p

ramp

1. indefinite accusative singular of rampur

Derived from English ramp.

• IPA^(key): /ramp/

ramp

1. to joke around, to roughhouse
   • 2023, “Yuuz Di Sitn Dem We Jeuova Mek Fi Tiich Yu Pikni Dem Bout Im”, in JW.org‎^[3]:

     […] ar som likl popi a ramp wid dem wan aneda.

     […] or like little puppies romping around with each other.

• Larry Chang (2014) Biesik Jumiekan: Introduction to Jamaican Language, Chuu Wod, →ISBN, page 225

Related to rimpel (“wrinkle”).

ramp m

1. epilepsy, (human) cramp
2. bird claw disease, bird cramp
3. disaster, misfortune

• Dutch: ramp

• “ramp”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000

ramp c

1. a ramp (inclined surface connecting two levels)
2. a row of lights (especially at the front of a stage, i.e. footlights)
3. (by extension) (the front of) a stage
4. a missile launch platform

• rampfeber (“stage fright”)
• rampljus (“spotlight, limelight”)

• ramp in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• ramp in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• ramp in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)