ratchet up

English[edit]

ratchet up (third-person singular simple present ratchets up, present participle ratcheting up, simple past and past participle ratcheted up)

(transitive, intransitive) to increase
- 2020 October 15, Frank Pasquale, “‘Machines set loose to slaughter’: the dangerous rise of military AI”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:
  After all, nations are pouring massive resources into military applications of AI, and many citizens don’t know or don’t care. Yet that quiescent attitude may change over time, as the domestic use of AI surveillance ratchets up, and that technology is increasingly identified with shadowy apparatuses of control, rather than democratically accountable local powers.

to increase