дальше - больше

• ДАЛЬШЕ - БОЛЬШЕ; ДАЛЕЕ - БОЛЕЕ

[sent; these forms only; usu. used in past contexts; fixed WO]

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⇒ (usu. in refer, to sth. disagreeable) the longer a process, activity etc continues, the more intense it becomes:

- as time went on, it got (grew) worse (and worse);

- (then) it went from bad to worse;

- it went downhill from there.

     ♦ [Анисья:] Ничегохонько не угадывала, а у них [Акулины и Никиты] согласье уж было. [Кума:] О-о, дело-то какое! [Анисья:] Дальше - больше, вижу, от меня хорониться стали (Толстой 1). [A.:] It never occurred to me that there might already have been an understanding between them [Akulina and Nikita]. [K.:] Oh, dear, what a disgraceful business! [A.:] And as time went on, it got worse and worse, and they began to hide from me (lc).

     ♦ Ворюга [Федька], повадки волчьи. А началось всё с пустяков - с кочешка капусты, с репки, с горстки зерна, которые он начал припрятывать от семьи. Потом дальше - больше: в чужой рот полез (Абрамов 1). [context transl] Не [Fedka] was a crook - greedy as a wolf. It began with piddling little stuif: a head of cabbage, a turnip, or a handful of grain that he hid from the rest of the family. And it took off from there, until he was stealing the food out of everyone else's mouth (1a).