"I still don't know the meaning of the verb. What is its root?" To "climb" something means to "move, with effort, in an upward direction." You walk across the floor, then you climb the stairs. It means "to ascend." I'm going to check but I'm first going to hazard a guess that "climb" is a genuine Anglo-Saxon word--one of the short words that are the basic, "simple" vocabulary of English. A fairly common pattern in English is to have a pair of words, an Anglo-Saxon word and a Latin-derived word, and the Anglo-Saxon word is the everyday word, while the Latin-derived word is more formal or technical. And, yes: the derivation is "[Middle English climben, from Old English climban.]" Interesting but probably not helpful to a Russian speaker. This man is climbing a ladder: http://essrsafety.com/catalog/images/prodimages/mf-GlideLoc_Ladder_Kit.jpg These people are climbing a hill: http://tinyurl.com/zhhqz94 By the way, the "b" is not pronounced. It sounds exactly the same as the completely different word "clime," and rhymes with "lime," "time," and... "rhyme."

It's a fantastic question that is making me think. You cannot "climb a ship." You certainly can say "climb aboard" a ship, "climb the mast" _of_ a ship, and "climb up the side" of a ship. As a reality check, I did a quick Google search on Project Gutenberg and found actual examples in books: "It struck him that he might climb aboard the boat again." "Beelzebub himself might climb up the side and step down into the cabin to chat with the captain, and it would not create any unsubduable excitement in the forecastle." "He was the first to climb the mast, as the ship floated in the stream." "...he leaped from the canoe, swam to the boat; and climbing the gunwale, stood face to face with the captain..."' So what is happening? I think that you can only say "climb the X" or "climb an X" when you are thinking of X as something that is --meant to be climbed, --has an obvious top, and --you intend to get to the top. Stairs, ladders, and some _parts_ of a ship, like the masts are designed to be climbed. You can "climb the stairs," "climb a ladder," "climb the mast." And, while mountains are not designed to be climbed, we often think of them that way, so we can "climb a mountain" or "climb a hill," when we are thinking of the top as a goal we intend to reach. To "climb a mountain" means specifically to reach the top. If you only go halfway, you would never say "I climbed the mountain." You might say "I went climbing on the mountain" or "I climbed halfway up the mountain." Specifically for a ship (or other transportation), you may want to consider the verb "to board." It means to get on the the ship--not necessarily by climbing. You might board a ship by means of a gangway, or board a plane by means of a jetway.

You can't say "climb a ship", because a ship isn't something you can climb. You could climb onto or aboard a ship. If it's an older ship, you could climb the mast or the rigging. You could also climb up a side of the ship from the water.

You can't really climb a ship. Climbing is very specific. Climbing means you need to use both hands at feet during the activity. You can climb a tree, a fence and a mountain like you said, because you need both your hands and feet to get to the top or the other side.

Here are some other examples wherein climbing is used: to climb a ladder to climb the stairs to climb the/ a pole