escalate

1. (ambitransitive) To increase (something) in extent or intensity; to intensify or step up.Examples: "Violence escalated during the election."; "The shooting escalated the existing hostility."; "A small fight escalated into a big fight."ambitransitive

2. (transitive) In technical support, to transfer a customer, a problem, etc. to the next higher level of authorityExamples: "The tech 1 escalated the caller to a tech 2."transitive

3. (uncommon) To climb.Examples: "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."uncommon

4. (rare) To move by escalator.Examples: "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."Synonyms: escalator#Verbrare