kick down the ladder

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Unless the Medici could manage to kick down the ladder whereby they had risen, they ran the risk of losing all.

From Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Second Series by Brown, Horatio Robert Forbes

Serfdom, like cannibalism and polygamy, are the steps by which human society rose to its present status: to abuse them is ignorantly to kick down the ladder.

From To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II A Personal Narrative by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir

And that was all right, said the other, but why kick down the ladder by which you had climbed—and especially when you had perhaps not entirely finished climbing?

From Jimmie Higgins by Sinclair, Upton

Let us not kick down the ladder by which we mounted, nor refuse to acknowledge what our fathers felt in their hour of trial.

From The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by Mahan, A. T. (Alfred Thayer)

American economic history betrays the pioneer helping to kick down the ladder which he himself had raised toward equal opportunity for all.

From Definitions: Essays in Contemporary Criticism by Canby, Henry Seidel