dial sth up
informal— phrasal verb with dial uk/ˈdaɪ.əl/us/ˈdaɪ.əl/verb [ I or T ] -ll- or US usually -l-
to make something more forceful or extreme:
With talks at a standstill, each side had dialled up the rhetoric.
Hurricane Ivan dialled up its ferocity as it squeezed through the narrow channel that separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico.
More examples
- The new test will only dial up the stress factor.
- The two teams dialed up the intensity in anticipation of a potential playoff matchup.
- By dialing up the financial pressure, the company will be forced to answer difficult questions.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Increasing and intensifying
- -ify
- a snowball effect idiom
- accretion
- accumulate
- accumulative
- add fuel to the fire idiom
- balloon
- bump
- dial
- heighten
- hot up
- increase
- increment
- pile
- rack
- speed-up
- spurt
- step
- step sth up
- supersize
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Becoming and making stronger