rack up, whopping, ramp up, ratchet up, morphing

Editorial: JPMorphing

JPMorgan Chase’s whopping trading loss has revived calls for a tougher version of the Volcker Rule, but Jamie Dimon isn’t dropping his campaign against regulation. 

China's trade surplus ballooned unexpectedly last month, ratcheting up pressure on the government to allow the yuan to appreciate faster. The data come as U.S. and Chinese officials have been discussing issues including trade and the yuan, among other issues.



Microsoft racked up a whopping $8.5 billion phone bill to buy Skype even though there were no signs of other serious bidders, as the software giant moved aggressively to ramp up its growth.

whopping

(hwŏp'ĭng, wŏp'-) Slang.
adj.
Exceptionally large: "yet another whopping pay raise" (Lee Atwater).

adv.
Used as an intensive: a whopping good joke.

[Present participle of WHOP .]

ramp up

Increase rapidly. Describes the expected performance of sales and profits of a new business, which increase rapidly until a plateau is reached at maturity.

The UK university that’s open to cash strapped students

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:

From next year, British universities will be able to charge tuition fees of around 11,000 euros a year. That's more than triple the amount they're currently allowed to charge.

This move towards what's seen as a more US-style model of college funding started about 5 years ago with the introduction of much lower tuition fees. But with students not used to the idea of racking up debts before the age of 21, many have turned to other alternatives. One distance learning university that turned 40 last year has seen a large increase in the number of younger students. Nik Martin reports from Milton Keynes.

rack up
Accumulate or score, as in Last night's episode of that new sitcom racked up at least fifteen points in the ratings. [Colloquial; mid-1900s]

 morph³ (môrf)

v., morphed, morph·ing, morphs.
v.tr.
To transform (an image) by computer: cinematic special effects that morphed the villain into a snake.

v.intr.
To be transformed: "Yesterday's filmstrip has morphed into today's school computer" (Clifford Stoll).

[Shortening of METAMORPHOSE.]