escalate

verb

SayES-kuh-layt/ˈɛs.kə.leɪt/

Formsescalates, escalating, escalated

4 meanings of escalate

1
verbtransitive or intransitive
To make something bigger, stronger, or more serious.
Like turning up the heat under a pot until it boils over.
Try not to escalate the argument when you're angry.
The small disagreement escalated into a shouting match.
Similarintensify, heighten, increase, worsen, mount
Oppositede-escalate, subside, defuse, ease
Note
2
verbtransitive
To pass a customer or problem to someone with more authority to help.
Like asking a teacher for help when a classroom helper can't solve the problem.
The agent escalated my complaint to a manager.
Please escalate this ticket if you can't fix it.
Similarrefer, transfer, forward
Note
3
verbrare
To go up something by climbing.
We were escalating up a few hundred feet into the canyon.
2002, V. William Barrett, Sticks and Shovels: A Modern Western MysteryHere, escalating means climbing or going up.
Similarclimb, ascend, scale
Oppositedescend
Note

Less common meaning

4
verbrareintransitive
To move from one floor to another by escalator.
Escalating up the up escalator at Green Park Tube station was a hundred times better than walking up two loads of steps at Oxford Circus.
2022, Kes Gray, Daisy and the Trouble with LondonHere, escalating means riding up on an escalator.
There were people just about everywhere, packing the garish fluorescent-lit corridors, riding in humming golf carts, escalating up and down escalators, floating along on those George Jetson moving sidewalk thingies.
2014, James Patterson, Burn (Michael Bennett)Here, escalating means riding escalators to move between floors.
Note

Practice

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Origin

Made from the word "escalator."