build up
v 1: enlarge, develop, or increase by degrees or in stages;
"build up your savings"
2: form or accumulate steadily; "Resistance to the manager's
plan built up quickly"; "Pressure is building up at the
Indian-Pakistani border" [syn: work up, build, progress]
3: prepare oneself for a military confrontation; "The U.S. is
girding for a conflict in the Middle East"; "troops are
building up on the Iraqui border" [syn: arm, fortify,
gird] [ant: disarm]
4: bolster or strengthen; "We worked up courage"; "build up
confidence"; "ramp up security in the airports" [syn: work
up, build, ramp up]
5: change the use of and make available or usable; "develop
land"; "The country developed its natural resources"; "The
remote areas of the country were gradually built up" [syn:
develop]
WordNet (r) 2.0
138 Moby Thesaurus words for "build up":
add to, advertise, agent provocateur, aggrandize, aggravate,
amplify, annoy, assemble, augment, ballyhoo, bark, bill, bloat,
blow up, boost, broaden, build, bulk, bulk out, bulletin,
burlesque, caricature, carry too far, circularize, combine,
compose, consist of, constitute, construct, crescendo, cry, cry up,
deepen, deteriorate, develop, dilate, distend, draw the longbow,
embitter, embody, enhance, enlarge, enter into, establish,
exacerbate, exaggerate, exalt, exasperate, expand, extend,
fabricate, fatten, fill out, form, give a write-up, give publicity,
go into, go to extremes, heat up, heighten, hike, hike up, hot up,
huff, hyperbolize, incorporate, increase, inflate, intensify,
irritate, jack up, join, jump up, lay it on, lengthen, magnify,
make, make acute, make much of, make up, make worse, maximize,
merge in, mix, organize, overcharge, overdo, overdraw,
overestimate, overpraise, overreach, overreact, oversell,
overspeak, overstate, overstress, parlay, piece together,
pile it on, placard, plug, post, post bills, post up, press-agent,
promote, provoke, publicize, puff, puff up, pump, pump up,
put together, put up, pyramid, raise, rarefy, sell, set up,
sharpen, sour, spiel, stretch, stretch the truth, structure,
sufflate, swell, synthesize, talk big, talk in superlatives,
thicken, tout, travesty, unite in, up, widen, worsen, write up
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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