See escalate in Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus II
verb
To make or become greater or larger:
aggrandize, amplify, augment, boost, build, build up, burgeon, enlarge, expand, extend, grow, increase, magnify, mount, multiply, proliferate, rise, run up, snowball, soar, swell, upsurge, wax. (Informal) beef up. See increase
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