• vi. 逐步增強(qiáng)；逐步升高
• vt. 使逐步上升

e-, 緩音字母。-scala, 梯子，詞源同ascend, echelon.比喻義加劇，惡化。

escalate

escalate: [20] Escalate is a back-formation from escalator [20], which was originally a tradename for a moving staircase first made in the USA around 1900 by the Otis Elevator Company. This in turn seems to have been coined (probably on the model of elevator) from escalade [16], a term in medieval warfare signifying the scaling of a fortified wall, which came via French and Spanish from medieval Latin scalāre, source of English scale ‘climb’. Escalate originally meant simply ‘a(chǎn)scend on an escalator’; the metaphorical sense ‘increase’ developed at the end of the 1950s.

escalate (v.)

1922, "to use an escalator," back-formation from escalator, replacing earlier verb escalade (1801), from the noun escalade. Escalate came into general use with a figurative sense of "raise" from 1959 (intrans.), originally in reference to scenarios for possible nuclear war. Related: Escalated; escalating. Transitive figurative sense is by 1962.

1. Costs can escalate terrifyingly.

成本的上漲速度會很驚人。

來自柯林斯例句

2. Ground rents are likely to escalate over time.

地租以后可能會逐漸上漲。

來自柯林斯例句

3. Conditions are still very tense and the fighting could escalate at any time.

局勢仍然非常緊張，戰(zhàn)斗隨時可能升級。

來自柯林斯例句

4. Both unions and management fear the dispute could escalate.

工會和管理層都擔(dān)心爭端會惡化。

來自辭典例句

5. Defeat could cause one side or other to escalate the conflict.

失敗可能會導(dǎo)致其中一方將沖突升級。

來自辭典例句