ramp

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
ramp/ramp/

▶noun

• 1 a sloping surface joining two different levels.

  ■ a movable set of steps for entering or leaving an aircraft.

  ■ N. Amer. an inclined slip road leading to or from a main road or motorway.

  ■ North American term for catwalk (sense 1)).

• 2 Brit. a transverse ridge in a road to control the speed of vehicles.

• 3 an upward bend in a stair rail.

• 4 an electrical waveform in which the voltage increases or decreases linearly with time.

• 5 Brit. informal a swindle involving a fraudulent increase of the price of a share.

▶verb

• 1 provide with a ramp.

• 2 Brit. drive up the price of (a company's shares) in order to gain a financial advantage.

  ■ (often ramp something up) increase the level or amount of (something) sharply.

• 3 (of an electrical waveform) increase or decrease in voltage linearly with time.

• 4 archaic (of an animal) rear up on its hind legs.

  ■ rush about violently.

• 5 chiefly dialect (of a plant) grow or climb luxuriantly.

– origin ME (as v. in the sense ‘rear up’: from OFr. ramper ‘creep, crawl’, of unknown origin.