escalatev.
/ˈɛskəleɪt/, U.S. /ˈɛskəˌleɪt/ 1.
a. transitive. To climb or reach by means of an escalator.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > transport > transport or conveyance in a vehicle > riding in a vehicle > ride a vehicle [verb (transitive)] > reach by means of escalator
escalate1927
1927 Atlantic Monthly Jan. 48/1 With almost incredible ingenuity we ward off the bumps, plane the sharp corners, ‘escalate’ the heights.
b. intransitive. To travel on an escalator.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > transport > transport or conveyance in a vehicle > riding in a vehicle > ride in a vehicle [verb (intransitive)] > on an escalator
escalate1922
1922 Granta 10 Nov. 93/2 I dreamt I saw a Proctor ‘escalating’, Rushing up a quickly moving stair.
1959 Observer 21 June 14/6 Why does other people's luggage always look so neat and articulate as it comes escalating along at the airport?
2. figurative (transitive and intransitive). To increase or develop by successive stages; spec. to develop from ‘conventional’ warfare into nuclear warfare.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > war > wage (war) [verb (transitive)] > organize for war
militiate1642
escalate1959
the world > relative properties > quantity > increase in quantity, amount, or degree > [verb (intransitive)] > progressively
spiral1922
snowball1929
escalate1959
the world > relative properties > quantity > increase in quantity, amount, or degree > [verb (transitive)] > increase progressively
escalate1959
ratchet1965
1959 Manch. Guardian 12 Nov. 1/1 The possibility of local wars ‘escalating into all-out atomic wars’.
1961 Economist 28 Oct. 317/2 Using tactical nuclear weapons which would be likely to escalate hostilities into a global nuclear war.
1962 Listener 29 Mar. 543/2 To keep the Communists from escalating the war to a stage in which they are capable of..taking over the reins of local government themselves.
1962 Listener 29 Mar. 549/1 Something short of a deliberate Soviet attack, some sort of accident, some sort of border incident, will escalate so rapidly into nuclear war that we shall be unable to stop it.
1963 Horizon (U.S.) July 37/1 The wish of the author to magnify or escalate (favorite new word in Washington) the importance of a trivial utterance by grandiloquent terminology.
1963 Oxf. Mail 26 July 6/9 Peace as well as war, can escalate.
1966 Punch 28 Sept. 482/2 The animal book boom is terrific and still escalating.
1967 Listener 3 Aug. 131/3 Only a tiny percentage of cannabis-smokers escalate to heroin.
1970 Guardian 4 June 12/1 The National Council has before it a demand to ‘escalate Palestinian action in all fields’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1972; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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