accelerate
/əkˈsɛləreɪt
/verb [no object]
1(Especially of a vehicle) begin to move more quickly: the car accelerated towards her...
- Then the airplane starts accelerating rapidly and people begin panicking.
- The airplane accelerates very quickly in the dive and when seen from the ground appears extremely fast.
- What the figures don't tell you, though, is just how quickly this little car accelerates in the midrange.
1.1Increase in rate, amount, or extent: inflation started to accelerate [with object]: the key question is whether stress accelerates ageing...
- It may not have the highest percentage of population infected, but, frighteningly and tragically, its rate of increase is accelerating.
- This contribution is expected to increase as melting rates accelerate, though ultimately the added runoff is predicted to disappear as glaciers decline many decades from now.
- The rate of advance of biotech is likely to accelerate to such an extent that many people who are alive right now will live to see aging become at first partially reversible.
Synonyms
speed up, hurry up, get faster, move faster, go faster, drive faster, get a move on, put on a spurt, open it up, gain momentum, increase speed, pick up speed, gather speed
informal step on the gas, step on it, get cracking, get moving
North American informal get a wiggle on
Australian informal get a wriggle on
increase, rise, go up, advance, leap, surge, speed up, escalate, spiral, get worse
hasten, expedite, precipitate, speed, speed up, hurry up, make faster, step up, advance, further, forward, promote, boost, give a boost to, stimulate, spur on;
aid, assist, help along, facilitate, ease, make easier, simplify
informal crank up
1.2 Physics Undergo a change in velocity: (as adjective accelerating) an accelerating electron radiates off some of its energy...
- In this model the gamma rays are emitted as synchrotron radiation by electrons that are accelerated to much lower energies.
- These electrons are further accelerated to strike a fluorescent screen, where the effects can easily be seen by the eyes.
- This action causes the solar atmosphere to sizzle with high-energy X-rays and gamma rays and accelerate proton and electron particles into the solar system.
Derivatives
accelerative
/ adjective ...- His approach appears to be playing them at double-speed and triple-volume, turning the sparse, relaxed soundscape of LP highlight Poor Leno into a throbbing, accelerative monster of a tune.
- The more accelerative, lower-ratio gearbox comes as part of the Z51 performance pack, which also includes stiffer dampers and springs, larger anti-roll bars and larger, cross-drilled brake discs.
- For the most part it veers wildly along that thick line between punk and speed metal, but the two covers of tracks by post-punk Boston band Mission Of Burma slot in seamlessly alongside Coxon's own accelerative output.
Origin
Early 16th century (in the sense 'hasten the occurrence of'): from Latin accelerat- 'hastened', from the verb accelerare, from ad- 'towards' + celer 'swift'.