crank up

Verb

crank up (third-person singular simple present cranks up, present participle cranking up, simple past and past participle cranked up)

1. To start something mechanical, an act that often used to involve cranking.

   Let's crank up the old motorcycle and take it for a spin.

2. (idiomatic) To increase, as the volume, power or energy of something.

   He cranked up the volume to 11.

   • 2010 December 28, Marc Vesty, “Stoke 0 - 2 Fulham”, in BBC‎:

     And it was not until Ryan Shawcross's towering header was cleared off the line by Danny Murphy on the stroke of half-time that Stoke started to crank up the pressure and suggest they were capable of getting back into the match.