If the fight leads to an escalating cycle of retaliation, it leaves the partners with a sense of hopelessness.

Finally, he praises the film's depiction of an escalating cycle of violence and paranoia in "which mania feeds upon itself and becomes hysterical."

And that tended to bring annoyance, which made matters worse and threatened to set off an escalating cycle.

A bitter conflict ensued, bringing an escalating cycle of atrocities by both sides.

"We have been confronted with an escalating cycle of violence."

Protests erupted and the police opened fire, igniting an escalating cycle of demonstrations and violence.

But the worst abusers never call here: the social workers call Lisa Steinberg, beaten to death in an apparently escalating cycle of violence, the depressingly perfect example.

By December 1980 the Berlin City Government organised an escalating cycle of mass arrests, followed by other local authorities across West Germany.

In an escalating cycle, orchestra staff positions multiplied; with marketing pros toiling to fill seats at the extra concerts, development offices were expanded to pay for it all.

The result was an escalating cycle of assassinations and reprisal killings that rapidly alienated the hitherto quiescent French population.