Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Climax
Cli′max
,Noun.
1.
Upward movement; steady increase; gradation; ascent.
Glanvill.
2.
(Rhet.)
A figure in which the parts of a sentence or paragraph are so arranged that each succeeding one rises above its predecessor in impressiveness.
“Tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, and experience hope” – a happy
climax
. J. D. Forbes.
3.
The highest point; the greatest degree.
We must look higher for the
climax
of earthly good. I. Taylor.
To cap the climax
, to surpass everything, as in excellence or in absurdity.
[Colloq.]
Webster 1828 Edition
Climax
CLIMAX
, n.1.
Gradation; ascent; a figure of rhetoric, in which a sentence rises as it were, step by step; or in which the expression which ends one member of the period, begins the second, and so on, till the period is finished; as in the following: When we have practiced good actions a while, they become easy; and when they are easy, we begin to take pleasure in them; and when they please us, we do them frequently; and by frequency of acts, they grow into a habit.2.
A sentence, or series of sentences, in which the successive members or sentences rise in force, importance or dignity, to the close of the sentence or series.