# escalate

Pronunciation: say "ES-kuh-layt" /ˈɛs.kə.leɪt/

## Verb

1. To increase something in extent or intensity; to make a situation more serious or intense.
   - Simple: To make something bigger, stronger, or more serious.
   - _The protests escalated rapidly once the police moved in._
   - _Leaders on both sides agreed not to escalate tensions any further._
2. To refer a customer, problem, or similar matter to the next tier up in authority within a technical support operation.
   - Simple: To pass a customer or problem to someone with more authority to help.
   - _Support staff escalate unresolved tickets to the senior engineers._
   - _She escalated the outage to the on-call team within minutes._

## Verb

3. To climb or ascend, especially up a wall or steep surface. *(rare)*
   - Simple: To go up something by climbing.
4. To move between floors by riding an escalator. *(rare)*
   - Simple: To move from one floor to another by escalator.

## Origin

A back-formation from "escalator."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/escalate (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).