escalator
Plural: escalators
Noun
- a clause in a contract that provides for an increase or a decrease in wages or prices or benefits etc. depending on certain conditions (as a change in the cost of living index)
- a stairway whose steps move continuously on a circulating belt
- Anything that escalates.
- A motor-driven mechanical device consisting of a continuous loop of steps that automatically conveys people from one floor to another.
- An upward or progressive course.
- An escalator clause.
Verb
- To move by escalator.
Examples
- "There is a plastic molly-guard covering the escalator's shutdown button to prevent little kids from pushing it and stopping the escalator."
- "They agreed to a cost-of-living escalator."
- "We escalatored to the second floor."
Origin / Etymology
From the former trademark Escalator, created by American inventor Charles Seeberger in 1900, from Latin e (“from, out of”) + scala (“ladder”) + -tor, which forms nouns of agency. See the appendix. Broader usage may be influenced by escalate, and is equivalent to escalate + -or. For an alternative etymology, see the Online Etymology Dictionary.
Synonyms
escalate, escalator clause, moving staircase, moving stairway
Scrabble Score: 11
escalator is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordescalator is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
escalator is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary