escalate

verb

1. (ambitransitive)To increase (something) in extent or intensity; to intensify or step up.

   “Violence escalated during the election.”

   “The shooting escalated the existing hostility.”

   “A small fight escalated into a big fight.”

   “"Operating the WCML at this intensity makes it challenging to maintain acceptable performance levels, resulting in a frustratingly unreliable service for passengers. Minor disruption can escalate into significant delays because a train running only a few minutes late can miss its slot across a junction, resulting in a snowballing effect across the network."”

   “In another sense, public-health workers have been facing escalating hostility since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.”

2. (transitive)In technical support, to transfer a customer, a problem, etc. to the next higher level of authority

   “The tech 1 escalated the caller to a tech 2.”

3. (uncommon)To climb.

   “Thus, actually a prior uncounselled misdemeanor conviction may often prove to be a boon to one escalating the ladder of crime to the point where he has been convicted of a major aggravated offense.”

   “They escalated upstairs to the Mall coffee tables.”

   “Firms move to higher and higher levels of conflict in each arena, as if they are escalating up a ladder with each rung representing the new level of competition introduced by the last competitive maneuver.”

   “James worked through the basics, escalating up the ladder of complex moves.”

   “We were escalating up a few hundred feet into the canyon.”

4. (rare)To move by escalator.

   “Escalator after escalator flowed up to the heights above, […] Dov escalated up beside me, scowling.”

   “There were people just about everywhere, packing the garish fluorescent-lit corridors, riding in humming golf carts, escalating up and down escalators, floating along on those George Jetson moving sidewalk thingies.”

   “Escalating up the up escalator at Green Park Tube station was a hundred times better than walking up two loads of steps at Oxford Circus.”