culminate

verb

1. (intransitive)Of a heavenly body, to be at the highest point, reach its greatest altitude.
2. (intransitive)To reach the (physical or figurative) summit, highest point, peak etc.

   “As when his beams at noon / Culminate from the equator.”

   “The type of Cycads culminated in the Mesozoic”

   “The house of Burgundy was rapidly culminating.”

   “This culminates in a timetable change in December 2020, at which point EMR will introduce a sixth train each hour out of St Pancras.”

3. (figuratively, intransitive)To reach a climax; to come to a decisive point, especially an end or conclusion.

   “Their messy breakup culminated in a restraining order.”

   “The class will culminate with a rigorous examination.”

   “Mr. Bush has been marking the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11 with a series of speeches about terrorism that culminated with his televised address last night.”

   “Born in 1866 in Pingdong County in the south of the island, Lin became an outlaw after a brief stint as a Qing dynasty official, but after the Japanese invasion in 1895 he used his bandit experience to organize guerrilla resistance. This culminated in successful attacks on Donggang in 1897, and Chaojhou in 1898 with an army of two thousand that included Paiwan and Hakka troops as well as Taiwanese.”

4. (US)To reach a point at which continued progress is not possible.

   “Approaching from the south on foot, elements of the CG battalion were first to come into contact and their attack culminated because the rate and accuracy of the VC small arms fire. The CG battalions attempted two assaults to penetrate[…]”

   “As a result, the attack culminated the first day without additional artillery support. The towns of Eclisfontaine and Epinonville were not held on the first day as originally directed in the Corps plan.”

5. (transitive)To finalize, bring to a conclusion, form the climax of.

   “I would like to know if there are any true moralists who would like to correspond with someone who just instinctively feels there's something wrong somewhere in this unbenevolent world and wants to save it by culminating love and eradicating the captive emotions of the self (Ego).”

   “The announcement by Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott in Canberra culminated more than a fortnight of intensive political horse-trading.”

adj

1. (not-comparable)Relating to the culmen.
2. (not-comparable)Growing upward, as opposed to lateral growth.