up the ante

present singular third person ups the ante · participle present upping the ante · participle past upped the ante · past upped the ante

1. card gamesTo raise the stakes of a hand of poker.

   With three aces and two jacks, he thought it was safe to up the ante.

   Synonyms: raise the ante, raise the stakes

2. idiomaticOf a dispute, to take an action that raises the stakes, i.e. that increases the chances of conflict.
3. idiomaticTo render something more difficult.

   When runners cross-train for events, they often up the ante by running on sand.

   1 more example

   At the same time, leaders of the sport have continued to up the ante, organizing harder and longer races. Many last several days and hundreds of miles and include both high-altitude climbs and extreme temperatures.

   2021 May 25, Matthew Futterman, “‘I Am So Freaked Out. I Can’t Even Get My Mind Around It.’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 03 Jun 2021

4. idiomaticTo render something more desirable.

   The school system cannot raise teachers' salaries, so they are providing better benefits as an effort to up the ante.

   1 more example

   After a slow start, it was the home side who began to up 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.

   2011 November 3, Chris Bevan, “Rubin Kazan 1 - 0 Tottenham”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 25 Feb 2021

   Synonyms: sweeten the pot