Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To increase, enlarge, or intensify: escalated the hostilities in the Persian Gulf.
- v. To increase in intensity or extent: "a deepening long-term impasse that is certain to escalate” ( Stewart L. Udall).
Wiktionary
- v. to increase (something) in extent or intensity; to intensify or step up
- v. in technical support, to transfer a telephone caller to the next higher level of authority
WordNet 3.0
- v. increase in extent or intensity
Etymologies
- Back-formation from escalator. (Wiktionary)
- Back-formation from escalator. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The term escalate became popular during the Vietnam War and refers to the United States' significantly increasing its involvement, but the term also carries an undertone of blunder.”
“Among an estimated eight Republicans who've publicly said they, too, oppose the president's plan, several told CNN the word escalate in the resolution was a red flag they would not be able to support.”
“As things escalate from the merely unacceptable to the downright outrageous, however, Andrea begins to realize that the job a million girls would die for may just kill her.”
The Devil Wears Prada: Summary and book reviews of The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger.
“Here is where the. system can escalate from a clash over some incident in Berlin to wholesale nuclear annihilation.”
“There is nothing new in Haikal's argument, this salary issue reported by many American writers also, but Jordan's anger came because this issue raised for the first time on popular Aljazeera TV in Arabic. escalate the problem by lowering its representation in the coming Arab summit in Doha.”
“He talks in detail about the way things escalate, which is true for most of us.”
“Big 4 labels escalate attack on The Pirate Bay p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music who, since Day One, have been the leaders in entertainment cartel attacks on the online P2P sharing communities, have upped the ante against The Pirate Bay four, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi (top), Frederik Neij (left), Gottfrid Svartholm Warg (centre) and Carl Lundström.”
“Big 4 labels escalate attack on The Pirate Bay next »”
“And as this situation begins to escalate, not to mention the U.S. troops there as well, as this situation begins to escalate, that is on everyone's mind in that part of the world.”
“This problem will only escalate, which is why I am trying to ascertain exactly what the Iconians really want.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘escalate’.
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Mirrored Vowels
Rules:
• The word must have an even number of vowels.
• There must be four or more vowels; thus, at minimum, an A-A-A-A or A-B-B-A pattern.
• The vowels must appear in a mir...feminine, solicitor, caruncular, repackager, semiprimes, fetishises, decomposer, demonlover, recomposer, sepultures, lipotropic, colesterol and 385 more...
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WF - list of EN back-formations
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_back-formations
aborigine, accrete, acculturate, admix, admixture, adolesce, adsorb, adulate, advect, aesthete, air-condition, anticline and 212 more...
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2053 more...
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Baby Got Back-Formations
"A new word created by removing an affix from an already existing word, as vacuum clean from vacuum cleaner, or by removing what is mistakenly thought to be an affix, as pea from the earlier Englis...
resurrect, enthuse, couth, donate, emote, greed, isolate, manipulate, orate, prequel, spectate, upholster and 94 more...
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Verba Dilecta
delectable, notate, pauciloquy, paucity, pauciloquent, paucify, interscapilium, uropygium, inferna, nota, equipollent, prepollent and 677 more...
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Spelling Bee list 2011
Abalone, ablution, absolution, aboriginally, abstemious, academician, acclamation, accommodation, acculturation, acetic, acetone, acme and 590 more...
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GENERAL
acquiesce, adjunct, affable, alacrity, amiable, anodyne, anachronism, apex, aphorism, arbitrary, arch, archetype and 182 more...
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_mark's list
Words I like!
( personal list, favorite words, randomness )psy, nanobot, success, smack, vibration, microcosmic, springgraph, marksmanship, estranged, homoerotic, flex, fiasco and 1696 more...
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voc
due diligence, tally, stem, solely, tough, outstanding, escalate, alienated, evolve, trail, narrow
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R/W Masters List #2
The Dare
shard, gravel, array, guerrilla, enigma, dare, whiff, gaze, boxcar, embrace, silhouette, fury and 29 more...
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GRE secondary meaning
trite vocab with starling alternative meaning
discount, escalate, august, catholic, stem, blinkered, check, checkered, raft, involved, retiring, expansive and 15 more...
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Great Race Horse Names5
More poetry in motion.
feed bucket, escalate, red hot so and so, buckets n pans, half a rumor, easily assembled, river survivor, shitaki, beknown to me, burning mocassin, conjugal visit, blissful ignorance and 64 more...
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2013-04-25
regression, barge, ricin, feud, poison, foe, escalate, sinister, diabetes, surgery
Tweets
Looking for tweets for escalate.
super-charolastra I hate it when this gets used transitively. Gah! Feb 27, 2009