intensify

1 increase in extent or intensity; "The Allies escalated the bombing" [syn: escalate, step up] [ant: de-escalate]

2 make more intense, stronger, or more marked; "The efforts were intensified", "Her rudeness intensified his dislike for her"; "Potsmokers claim it heightens their awareness"; "This event only deepened my convictions" [syn: compound, heighten, deepen]

3 become more intense; "The debate intensified"; "His dislike for raw fish only deepened in Japan" [syn: deepen]

4 make the chemically affected part of (a negative) denser or more opaque in order produce a stronger contrast between light and dark [also: intensified]

English

Verb

1. To render more intense; as, to intensify heat or cold; to intensify colors; to intensify a photographic negative; to intensify animosity.
2. To become intense, or more intense; to act with increasing power or energy.

accelerate, accent, accentuate, accrue, accumulate, advance, agent provocateur, aggrandize, aggravate, amplify, annoy, appreciate, augment, balloon, beef up, bloat, blow up, boom, breed, broaden, build up, complicate, concentrate, condense, consolidate, crescendo, deepen, deteriorate, develop, double, embitter, emphasize, enhance, enlarge, escalate, exacerbate, exaggerate, exalt, exasperate, focus, gain, gain strength, get ahead, go up, grow, heat up, heighten, hop up, hot up, increase, irritate, jazz up, key up, magnify, make acute, make complex, make worse, mount, multiply, proliferate, provoke, quicken, ramify, redouble, reinforce, rise, rouse, run up, sharpen, shoot up, snowball, soup up, sour, spread, step up, strengthen, stress, swell, triple, wax, whet, widen, worsen