Idiom Breakdown

pull the ladder up behind oneself

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Definition

To prevent others from attaining or benefiting from the same advantages, opportunities, or rights as oneself.

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Coined by analogy with phrases such as make it to the top and climb the ladder that liken success to an upward struggle.

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"Near-synonym: pull up the drawbridge"
"The odds are that, after the first flush of enthusiasm, a non-proliferation treaty is going to look to many of the have-nots like a device for letting Russia and America scramble on top of their nuclear piles and then pull the ladder up behind them."
"Environmental concerns were a neat excuse for the industrialized nations to pull the ladder up behind them."
"Commented one senior administrator, “Early in my career another woman said to me, 'When you get where you're going, don't pull the ladder up behind you.' That is the prevalent attitude here.""

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