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I would like to say that some actions I take will make the "response time" bigger. In other words, the delay will be bigger.

Some options came to my head, but I don't know which one I should use.

  • Increasing the response time
  • Growing the response time
  • Enhancing the response time
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  • Increasing. By the way, this question would be less confusing if you changed growling to growing.
    – user230
    Commented Mar 26, 2013 at 5:20
  • 3
    Increasing will work, but also lengthening or if you want to say that an increase in the response time is a bad thing, then hurting, worsening. Or if increased response time is a good thing then, improving or helping
    – Jim
    Commented Mar 26, 2013 at 6:56
  • Note you have probably miss-spelled 'growing' here. Growling is the noise a dog might make when angry whilst growing is something plants do.
    – deed02392
    Commented Mar 26, 2013 at 12:31
  • Turn is used of causing changes in orientation and color, but not size: you make something bigger or smaller. And while grow is used as a causative in agriculture and business, that sense is not current in other fields.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Mar 26, 2013 at 12:32

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As Snailplane noted in a comment, the correct word in this case is increase:

Old response time: X time units

New response time: X+Y time units

The response time is greater than it was before the change, so it has increased:

After implementing the new system, response time has increased.

However, this can be ambiguous. Not because of the meanings of the English words, but because of how readers interpret them. In a number of contexts, an increase is positive:

Our earnings have increased 5% over last quarter

Hard drive capacity has increased greatly over the last ten years.

It is possible that readers will see the word increase and ignore context, instead just assuming that it's a positive. To avoid this, use a word like worsen or hurt, as Jim noted in another comment. These words are unquestionably negative without any ambiguity.

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