If you parlay a bet, then you take the winnings from one bet and bet it again on something else. You might have seen a gambler on TV parlay her winnings into a huge fortune.

Pronunciation: /'pɑrle/
English description: stake winnings from one bet on a subsequent wager
Synonyms: double up
Chinese Translation: 增值(zeng1 zhi2)
ORIGIN: The verb parlay is often used to talk about gambling, but it can be used more broadly to describe any initial stake that you turn into something much larger. You might parlay you early investment in your brother’s company into a high-paying leadership role. Parlay also has a noun form that describes these kinds of transactions. You might notice your Uncle Bob once again betting a baseball parlay.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

But it was the education act that parlayed merely not-crazy into something bigger.
Here a regime that had its own recent brush with severe economic distress succeeded in parlaying its nuclear program into a diplomatic bonanza.

*New word description, story and part of "EXAMPLE SENTENCE" are cited in Vocabulary.com