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speed (sth) up
— phrasal verb with speed /spiːd/ verb [I or T, usually + adv/prep] (sped or speeded, sped or speeded)Definition
› to happen or move faster, or to make something happen or move faster: This drug may have the effect of speeding up your heart rate. Can the job be speeded up in some way? The tape speeded up towards the end. I think you need to speed up a bit (= drive faster) - we're going to be late. The economy shows signs of speeding up (= increasing activity).Increasing and decreasing speed of motion
(Definition of speed (sth) up from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus
© Cambridge University Press)
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You are looking at an entry to do with Increasing and decreasing speed of motion, but you might be interested in these topics from the Movement and location topic area:
- Advancing and moving forward
- Arrivals and departures
- Arriving, entering and invading
- Backwards, sideways and back and forth
- Bending, twisting and curving
- Boarding and alighting from modes of transport
- Bouncing
- Changing direction
- Crossing and moving through
- Delivering and despatching
- Departing
- Describing movement towards
- Digging
- Direction of motion
- Down and downward
- Emitting and ejecting
- Evicting and forcing to leave
- Falling and dropping
- Fast and rapid
- General words for movement
- Immobility
- Inserting and forcing things into other things
- Jumping
- Making short, sudden movements
- Messengers and people who deliver things
- Movement
- Movement of liquids
- Movement on or through water
- Movement through the air
- Moving a long way on foot
- Moving downwards
- Moving firmly on foot
- Moving gently on foot
- Moving in order to avoid contact
- Moving on your hands and legs or on your stomach
- Moving quickly
- Moving to avoid being seen
- Moving unsteadily or with difficulty
- Moving upwards
- Not holding the body upright
- Phrases telling people to go away
- Physical gestures of respect
- Places and locations
- Placing and positioning an object
- Pleasant and make-believe places
- Posture
- Pulling
- Pursuing
- Pushing and shoving
- Raising and lowering
- Reclining
- Removing and extracting
- Returning to a place
- Revolving, rotating and spinning
- Runaways and refugees
- Running away and escaping
- Shaking, swinging and vibrating
- Sitting and standing
- Slow and moving slowly
- Speed of motion
- Staying and remaining
- Stretching the body
- Taking someone somewhere or telling them the way
- Throwing
- Transferring and transporting objects
- Turning upside down
- Unpleasant places
- Up and upward
- Visiting
- Walking and walkers
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SMART Thesaurus: Increasing and decreasing speed of motion
Synonyms and related words:
- accelerate verb
- acceleration noun
- brake verb
- catch (sb) up phrasal verb
- decelerate verb
- downshift verb (VEHICLE)
- gather verb (COLLECT)
- gun verb
- motor verb
- put your foot down idiom
- quicken verb
- retard verb
- retardation noun
- slacken verb (LESS ACTIVE)
- slow (sb/sth) down/up phrasal verb
- slow verb
- speed verb
- spurt noun (INCREASE)
- throttle (sth) back/down phrasal verb
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