crescendo
adverb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L188311 on Wikidata ↗noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L318861 on Wikidata ↗verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L331297 on Wikidata ↗adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L335710 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /kɹɪˈʃɛn.dəʊ/ / /kɹəˈʃɛn.dəʊ/ / /kɹɪˈʃɛn.doʊ/
adv
Etymology: Borrowed from Italian crescendo, gerund of crescere (“to grow, to increase”).
- Gradually increasing in force or loudness.
noun
Etymology: Borrowed from Italian crescendo, gerund of crescere (“to grow, to increase”).
- An instruction to play gradually more loudly, denoted by a long, narrow angle with its apex on the left ( < ), by musicians called a hairpin.
- A gradual increase of anything, especially to a dramatic climax.
“Their fighting rose in a fearsome crescendo.”
- The climax of a gradual increase.
“Their arguing rose to a fearsome crescendo.”
“With the Stoke supporters jeering Ziv's every subsequent touch, the pantomime atmosphere created by the home crowd reached a crescendo when Ziv was shown a straight red shortly after the break in extraordinary circumstances.”
verb
Etymology: Borrowed from Italian crescendo, gerund of crescere (“to grow, to increase”).
- To increase in intensity; to reach or head for a crescendo.
“The band crescendoed and then suddenly went silent.”
“And similarly, they are full of tricks: when the imagined stranger calls your name, the music crescendos romantically; when the video freezes on your laugh, it immediately desaturates the candid photo, making you look old-timey or famous or dead.”