Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Multiply

Mul′ti·ply (mŭl′tĭ·plī), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Multiplied; p. pr. & vb. n. Multiplying.] [F. multiplier, L. multiplicare, fr. multiplex manifold. See Multitude, Complex.] 1. To increase in number; to make more numerous; to add quantity to.

Impunity will multiply motives to disobedience. Ames.

2. (Math.) To add (any given number or quantity) to itself a certain number of times; to find the product of by multiplication; thus 7 multiplied by 8 produces the number 56; to multiply two numbers. See the Note under Multiplication.

3. To increase (the amount of gold or silver) by the arts of alchemy. [Obs.]

Multiplying gear (Mach.), gear for increasing speed. — Multiplying lens. (Opt.) See under Lens.

Mul′ti·ply, v. i. 1. To become greater in number; to become numerous.

When men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them. Gen. vi. 1.

2. To increase in extent and influence; to spread.

The word of God grew and multiplied. Acts xii. 24.

3. To increase amount of gold or silver by the arts of alchemy. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.