Meaning of snakes and ladders | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A 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.
   uncountable
2. Any situation in which people or events go forward and backward, seemingly at random.
   figuratively, uncountable

Equivalents

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.”

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

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

“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.”

CEFR level