A children's luck-based board game 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
any situation in which people or events go forward and backward, seemingly at random
a board game for children who use dice to move counters up ladders and down snakes
Snakes and ladders is a British children's game played with a board and dice. When you go up a ladder, you progress quickly. When you go down a snake, you go backwards