aerial ladder
1
5.6
- noun
- /ˈɛəriəl ˈlædər/
- Specialized
:
escalera aérea
- The fire truck arrived quickly, and the crew extended the aerial ladder to reach the balcony of the third floor.
Examples
-
In an emergency drill, the team practiced deploying the aerial ladder to gain access to high-rise buildings.
-
Tim and three guys from his ladder company come up an extended aerial ladder, crash through a window, and enter.
Fiction book (1991) -
Brian, now fully suited up, climbs the endless rungs of an extended aerial ladder.
Fiction book (1991) -
During the fire, the firefighters used the aerial ladder to rescue the trapped residents on the upper floors.
How High
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is compositionally built: 'aerial' (relating to the air or high places) plus 'ladder' (a climbing frame) yields a ladder used to reach up into the air, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer its basic purpose. The technical specifics (mounted on a fire truck, mechanically extendible) are extra specialist details, but they do not prevent the core meaning from being directly derivable.
Etymology
Aerial ladder links the word aerial, meaning 'in the air', and ladder; it is the long ladder fixed to a fire truck that can be raised into the air. Because it lets firefighters reach high windows and bring people down or send water from above, the name explains its job 'to reach high places' and 'to rescue'.