Library / English Dictionary

SPEED UP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move faster

Example:

The car accelerated

Synonyms:

accelerate; quicken; speed; speed up

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "speed up" is one way to...):

deepen; intensify (become more intense)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "speed up"):

brisk; brisk up; brisken (become brisk)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

These cars won't speed up

Derivation:

speedup (the act of accelerating; increasing the speed)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to move faster

Example:

He accelerated the car

Synonyms:

accelerate; speed; speed up

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "speed up" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

speedup (the act of accelerating; increasing the speed)

Credits

 Context examples: 

We have no fear in running at good speed up the river at night; there is plenty of water, and the banks are wide enough apart to make steaming, even in the dark, easy enough.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Robot scientist Eve was developed by a team of scientists at the Universities of Manchester, Aberystwyth, and Cambridge to automate – and hence speed up – the drug discovery process by automatically developing and testing hypotheses to explain observations, run experiments using laboratory robotics, interpret the results to amend their hypotheses, and then repeat the cycle, automating high-throughput hypothesis-led research.

(Toothpaste ingredient may help fight drug-resistant malaria, University of Cambridge)

The pace of life will pick up immediately, seeming to speed up from 25 to over 150 miles-an-hour.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

If you have been frustrated by a lack of progress on a matter dearly important to you, watch the days that circle January 10 for welcome news that finally, life is about to speed up to your satisfaction.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Neptune has been retrograding since June 21, so this will mark a substantial and welcome quickening to the pace of events—you will see life speed up appreciably, and when you capture a goal, it will be so gratifying.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)