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What is "escalate"

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escalate
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
escalate
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
escalating/growing violence (=violence that is becoming worse)
▪ There have been reports of escalating violence in the region.
the violence escalates (=becomes worse)
▪ The violence escalated as youths turned over a bus and began smashing shop windows.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
conflict
▪ The overcrowding that could result would inevitably escalate the conflict.
▪ We worked hard to avoid escalating any kinds of conflict.
▪ There was always the possibility of an obscure clash escalating into full-scale conflict.
violence
▪ Aggression and violence can escalate when jealousy and envy grow in a competitive atmosphere.
▪ In 1992, the violence escalated with the murders of two prominent producers and numerous incidents of extortion and threats.
▪ The violence apparently escalated as white and black youths turned over a bus and began smashing shop windows.
▪ Arrests and injuries were reported, but most in the crowds fled before the violence escalated.
▪ Gunfire could be heard in the city all day, she said, but the violence escalated late in the evening.
▪ When the focus is upon the potential for violence, the threat escalates.
▪ Since Edinburgh's licensing laws were liberalised in the 1970s, Lothian and Borders police statistics indicate that late-night violence has escalated.
▪ In 1919, racial violence escalated.
war
▪ Unless the international commun ity succeeds in bringing the two countries to the negotiating table soon, the war itself could escalate.
▪ The war against escalating on-line transaction-processing costs requires new weapons.
▪ The war escalated, on the ground, in the air, and at sea.
■ VERB
continue
▪ There has been some decline in the number of claims, but the cost of claims continues to escalate.
▪ Violence and harassment against abortion providers continued to escalate.
▪ After that, the parents' involvement often continues and may escalate.
▪ And those costs continue to escalate, now pushing $ 40 million.
▪ The contentious meeting came as controversy over Clinton fund raising continued to escalate.
▪ The price of water continued to escalate.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A dispute on the dance floor quickly escalated into violence.
▪ Gas prices are expected to continue to escalate in the short term.
▪ Land costs are escalating, causing concern among local builders.
▪ Staff saw costs escalating and sales slumping as the effect of the recession hit the company.
▪ The cost of the new building has escalated to a worrying level.
▪ The number of attacks on foreign aid workers has escalated dramatically.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As Amy came of age, discord between her parents escalated, and she was essentially on her own by age 15.
▪ Do premiums escalate each year or not because you grow older?
▪ Hip replacements were once a rarity: now they can be carried out easily and the call for them has escalated.
▪ Medicare and Medicaid have a plethora of policies that escalate their own costs.
▪ The jealousy she felt was escalating out of all control.
▪ The other side beats people, humiliates them, escalates its campaign to deny them their rights.
▪ We worked hard to avoid escalating any kinds of conflict.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
escalate

1922, "to use an escalator," back-formation from escalator, replacing earlier verb escalade (1801), from the noun escalade. Escalate came into general use with a figurative sense of "raise" from 1959 (intrans.), originally in reference to scenarios for possible nuclear war. Related: Escalated; escalating. Transitive figurative sense is by 1962.

Wiktionary
escalate

vb. 1 (cx ambitransitive English) To increase (something) in extent or intensity; to intensify or step up. 2 (cx transitive English) In technical support, to transfer a customer, a problem, etc. to the next higher level of authority

WordNet
escalate

v. increase in extent or intensity; "The Allies escalated the bombing" [syn: intensify, step up] [ant: de-escalate]

Usage examples of "escalate".

Smith turned into the gates of Folcroft Sanitarium, he promised himself that he would hunt down Captain Audion before the situation could escalate further.

After release from prison, his crimes escalated to the murder of three young women by asphyxia.

Skyla watched Arta Fera through slitted eyesAhe game had escalated, with each acutely aware of the stakes.

Sarra arrived back at the courtyard bonfire in time to see a difference of opinion between Keler Neffe and Sevat Semalson escalate into a shouting match.

On June 30, Sarah Good, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth How, Sarah Wildes, and Rebecca Nurse faced a Court of Oyer and Terminer that had sorted out the questions concerning proper evidence and was ready to deal firmly with the escalating threat of witchcraft.

The final confrontation between Rambo and Teasle would show that in this microcosmic version of the Vietnam war and American attitudes about it, escalating force results in disaster.

Beginning with pushing and shoving, and ritualized defecating and sniffing, the contests escalated, especially during the spring rutting season, to rearing, biting necks, striking at knees, and kicking out hind legs toward faces, heads, and chests.

Fleet and Ryis, not to mention the escalating problems with the Gamon.

The troubled din of the Iad was continuing to escalate through this exchange, and now, staring past Kissoon into the darkness beyond the faltering walls, Harry saw its abstractions unknitting, its wheel fragmenting.

Young couples would purchase that property, they would take up occupancy, they would quarrel, the quarreling would escalate to shouting and table-pounding, they would anathematize each other, and, presto, they would move out, not together but separately.

As the conflict escalates, I want you all to begin evaluating the situation autonomously and to feel free to take independent action.

They are Section A attacks escalated to one more level of viciousness and are of course in Blamer Mode.

As the American intervention widened and escalated, the way the war was conducted also came to be stigmatized as involving atrocities, illegal uses of force, and even a secret campaign of genocide.

They had barely been on Telos an hour, and already the situation had escalated out of control.

Dutch had said that his rescue mission was hush-hush stuff because of the risk of starting a war, and at the time, this particular pair of banana republics had been closest to escalating their perpetual disagreements and border incidents into something bloodier and more formal.