up the ante | Idiomator

Meaning: (poker)Toraisethestakesof a hand ofpoker.Synonyms:raise the ante,raise the stakesWith three aces and two jacks, he thought it was safe toup the ante.; (idiomatic)Of adispute, to take anactionthatraises the stakes, i.e. thatincreasesthechancesofconflict.; (idiomatic)Torendersomething moredifficult.When runners cross-train for events, they oftenup the anteby running on sand.2021May 25, Matthew Futterman, “‘I Am So Freaked Out. I Can’t Even Get My Mind Around It.’”, inThe New York Times‎[1],→ISSN, archived fromthe originalon3 June 2021:At the same time, leaders of the sport have continued toup the ante, organizing harder and longer races. Many last several days and hundreds of miles and include both high-altitude climbs and extreme temperatures.; (idiomatic)Torendersomething moredesirable.Synonym:sweeten the potThe school system cannot raise teachers' salaries, so they are providing better benefits as an effort toup the ante.2011November 3, Chris Bevan, “Rubin Kazan 1 - 0 Tottenham”, inBBC Sport‎[2], archived fromthe originalon25 February 2021:After a slow start, it was the home side who began toup the ante. Gokdeniz Karadeniz caused Spurs problems with his raids down the right and Alan Kasaev fired narrowly over from one of his pull-backs.

Examples:

EN: Take it easy, judge. This guy's a cinch. Any minute now he'll want to jack up the ante.
ES: Tranquilo, juez, este tipo es una bicoca, pronto te propondrá aumentar la apuesta.
EN: How much did you up the ante on her when her husband came home?
ES: ¿Cuánto le pidió a ella cuando supo que su marido volvía a casa?
EN: Well... I could up the ante a bit, maybe.
ES: Quizá pueda aliviarlo un poco.
EN: Look, if you're trying to up the ante, why don't you just say so and get it over with?
ES: Mire, si está intentando subir la apuesta ¿por qué no lo dice y acabamos de una vez?
EN: Well, if they need us so badly they'll have to up the ante.
ES: -¿Con quién? -Tiene que ver con la nieve.
EN: You have to up the ante, not lower it.
ES: Tienes que subir la apuesta, no bajarla.
EN: Maybe had better up the ante.
ES: Quizás necesitemos algo de acción.
EN: Well, I guess then we'll have to up the ante, Sardu.
ES: Bien, entonces creo que debemos aumentar el precio.
EN: However, if you were to up the ante, I could take care of things.
ES: Pero si sube Ud. su oferta, yo me encargo de todo.
EN: Hurry and up the ante!
ES: - ¡De prisa!
EN: - And up the ante.
ES: Y subir la apuesta.
EN: Let's up the ante a little more.
ES: Vamos a subir la apuesta un poco más.
EN: # pushing up the ante, I know you wanna see me
ES: ¡Arriésgate! Ya sé que las quieres ver.
EN: Think he's trying to up the ante on us?
ES: - ¿Crees que trata de que le paguemos más?
EN: Don't try to up the ante with that tourist bullshit, Kwo.
ES: No trate de subir la apuesta con ese turista. ¡Mentiras Kwo!

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).