as in intensified
to make markedly greater in measure or degree
candidates stepping up their campaigns as election day draws near stepped up the pace to catch up with the others
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Recent Examples of stepped up
The Los Angeles Dodgers stepped up, while a handful of errant pitches and base-running mistakes cost Toronto a World Series.
—
Nelson Espinal, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2025
When founding designer Gianni was murdered on the steps of his Miami Beach house in July 1997, Donatella stepped up to lead design.
—Vogue Business Team, Vogue, 4 Nov. 2025
The group participated in some drills before William stepped up to take part in a penalty kick contest.
—Simon Perry, PEOPLE, 3 Nov. 2025
The pass came better late than never after Mahomes stepped up in the pocket, and Rice hauled it in and took it the final 11 yards into the end zone.
—Kansas City Star, 28 Oct. 2025
The search for hostage bodies stepped up over the past few days after the arrival of heavy machinery from Egypt.
—Maayan Lubell, USA Today, 28 Oct. 2025
The spokesman pointed to Spotify's new AI protections for artists and music producers, which includes stepped up enforcement of AI impersonators, like in this case.
—Bobby Allyn, NPR, 27 Oct. 2025
As temperatures drop in Ukraine, Russia has stepped up drone attacks on power facilities supplying millions of homes across the country.
—Tim Lister, CNN Money, 21 Oct. 2025
A lot of guys were out, and the guys that got to play stepped up.
—Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 Oct. 2025
Nelson Espinal, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2025
When founding designer Gianni was murdered on the steps of his Miami Beach house in July 1997, Donatella stepped up to lead design.
—Vogue Business Team, Vogue, 4 Nov. 2025
The group participated in some drills before William stepped up to take part in a penalty kick contest.
—Simon Perry, PEOPLE, 3 Nov. 2025
The pass came better late than never after Mahomes stepped up in the pocket, and Rice hauled it in and took it the final 11 yards into the end zone.
—Kansas City Star, 28 Oct. 2025
The search for hostage bodies stepped up over the past few days after the arrival of heavy machinery from Egypt.
—Maayan Lubell, USA Today, 28 Oct. 2025
The spokesman pointed to Spotify's new AI protections for artists and music producers, which includes stepped up enforcement of AI impersonators, like in this case.
—Bobby Allyn, NPR, 27 Oct. 2025
As temperatures drop in Ukraine, Russia has stepped up drone attacks on power facilities supplying millions of homes across the country.
—Tim Lister, CNN Money, 21 Oct. 2025
A lot of guys were out, and the guys that got to play stepped up.
—Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for stepped up
Verb
-
The debate in Cincinnati intensified when City Manager Sheryl Long placed Police Chief Teresa Theetge on leave in October and hired a law firm to investigate her job performance.—
Patricia Gallagher Newberry,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
4 Nov. 2025
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Twenty other areas in Darfur and Kordofan, where fighting has intensified in recent months, are also at risk of famine, according to the IPC.—
NPR,
NPR,
3 Nov. 2025
Verb
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The new sedan also integrates BYD’s latest Tianshen C driver-assistance suite, which adds adaptive cruise, lane-centering, and enhanced safety automation to support more comfortable long-distance driving.—
Bojan Stojkovski,
Interesting Engineering,
25 Oct. 2025
-
The 8-mm manual focusing lens has a resolution of 256 × 192 pixels, which can be enhanced to simulate 512 × 384 pixels.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
24 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Every element of this show is equally heightened and untethered from anything resembling reality, and the only actor who rises to meet that moment is Paulson.—
Tom Smyth,
Vulture,
4 Nov. 2025
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Council members call for more transparency Concerns among the community about the bayou deaths heightened when McKissic and others were unexplainably found dead within weeks of each other.—
Dalia Faheid,
CNN Money,
27 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
The tie-up has further deepened its Houlihan relationship.—
Shawn Tully,
Fortune,
1 Nov. 2025
-
Anthropic and Google deepened their cloud partnership last week in a deal worth tens of billions of dollars, while Meta has inked hefty cloud deals with Google and Oracle in recent months.—
Annie Palmer,
CNBC,
30 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The storm has strengthened into the equivalent of a Category 4 Hurricane and is expected to hit central Vietnam Thursday night — an area that hasn’t yet recovered from disastrous flash flooding and landslides caused by weeks of record rainfall and successive storms.—
Helen Regan,
CNN Money,
6 Nov. 2025
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Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch has said several operations already underway in Michoacán, including arresting those involved in organized crime, would be strengthened.—
Ellie Cook,
MSNBC Newsweek,
5 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
Originally developed by General Dynamics in the 1970s, production later shifted through McDonnell Douglas and Hughes Aircraft before being consolidated under Raytheon.—
Gabe Whisnant,
MSNBC Newsweek,
31 Oct. 2025
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Those cases, still making their way through federal court, have been consolidated into multi-district litigation under a federal judge in the Southern District of New York.—
N'dea Yancey-Bragg,
USA Today,
28 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Stepped up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/stepped%20up. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
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