v. [f. STEEP a. + -EN5.]
1. intr. To become steep or steeper.
1847. H. Miller, First Impr., ix. 153. As the way steepened … I could detect … some traces of the old path.
1883. Stevenson, Treas. Isl., xxxi. But by little and little the hill began to steepen.
2. trans. fig. To increase, ‘pile on,’ ‘heap up’; also with up.
1909. Ld. Rosebery, in Times, 11 Sept., 7/5. They [death duties] have been constantly steepened up, to use a phrase which is so dear to me, they are already beginning to flag.
1914. Q. Rev., April, 458. The financial demands made upon underwriting members have been very much steepened of recent years.
Hence Steepening vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1868. Gladstone, in Morley Life (1903), II. V. xvi. 256. I ascend a steepening path with a burden ever gathering weight.
1909. Ld. Rosebery, in Times, 11 Sept., 7/5. An argument for the steepening of the death duties was that [etc.].
