de-escalate

  • 1escalate — es‧ca‧late [ˈeskəleɪt] verb [intransitive] if amounts, prices etc escalate, they increase: • They saw costs escalating and sales slumping as the effect of rising oil prices hit the company. escalation noun [uncountable] : • The rapid escalation… …

    Financial and business terms

  • 2escalate — is a 1920s back formation from escalator (first recorded in 1900), and has burst the bounds of meaning that a word for a moving staircase might be expected to impose. Not surprisingly, escalate is now rarely used in its first meaning ‘to travel… …

    Modern English usage

  • 3escalate — 1922, back formation from ESCALATOR (Cf. escalator), replacing earlier verb escalade (1801), from the noun ESCALADE (Cf. escalade). Escalate came into general use with a figurative sense of raise after 1959 in reference to the possibility of… …

    Etymology dictionary

  • 4escalate — ☆ escalate [es′kə lāt΄ ] vi. escalated, escalating [back form. < ESCALATOR] 1. to rise on or as on an escalator 2. to expand step by step, as from a limited or local conflict into a general, esp. nuclear, war 3. to grow or increase rapidly,… …

    English World dictionary

  • 5escalate — index accrue (increase), enhance, enlarge, expand, increase, inflate, intensify, parlay (exploit successfully) …

    Law dictionary

  • 6escalate — [v] increase, be increased amplify, ascend, broaden, climb, enlarge, expand, extend, grow, heighten, intensify, magnify, make worse, mount, raise, rise, scale, step up, widen; concepts 236,245 Ant. decrease, diminish, lessen, lower, weaken …

    New thesaurus

  • 7escalate — ► VERB 1) increase rapidly. 2) become more intense or serious. DERIVATIVES escalation noun. ORIGIN originally in the sense «travel on an escalator»: from ESCALATOR(Cf. ↑escalator) …

    English terms dictionary

  • 8escalate — UK [ˈeskəleɪt] / US [ˈeskəˌleɪt] verb Word forms escalate : present tense I/you/we/they escalate he/she/it escalates present participle escalating past tense escalated past participle escalated 1) [intransitive/transitive] to become much worse or …

    English dictionary

  • 9escalate — verb 1 become/make sth worse ADVERB ▪ quickly, rapidly ▪ gradually, steadily ▪ Violence between the two sides has been steadily escalating. ▪ The risks gradually escalate …

    Collocations dictionary

  • 10escalate — 01. The argument outside the pub quickly [escalated] into a fistfight. 02. Prices for certain vegetables have [escalated] due to poor weather conditions in California last year. 03. Tensions in the region have [escalated] in the past few months,… …

    Grammatical examples in English