multiply

verb

1. (transitive)To increase the amount, degree or number of (something).

   “The motives to refuse obedience to government are many and strong ; impunity will multiply and enforce them”

   “It would indeed be easy to multiply modern authorities respecting locustal food; one more authority shall suffice, from which it will appear that the Arabs make a sort of locust bread.”

2. (transitive)To perform multiplication on (a number).

   “when you multiply 3 by 7, you get 21; he multiplied several numbers”

   “But that can be ignored, because the USTR has set ε at 4 and φ at 0.25, so when computed give an overall multiplier of 1 for the imports number. And multiplying by 1 makes no difference at all.”

3. (intransitive)To grow in number.
4. (intransitive)To breed or propagate.

   “[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across.[…]Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, and that in several cases these bacteria were dividing and thus, by the perverse arithmetic of biological terminology, multiplying.”

5. (intransitive)To perform multiplication.

   “He had been multiplying, but it occurred to him he needed to resolve the exponents, first.”

   “I could add and subtract and multiply and divide, but I entered the wilderness when words became equations.”

6. (rare, transitive)To be a factor in a multiplication with (another factor).

   “This follows a similar process, counters having to be removed and replaced at each stage of the remaining part of the calculation except the final one, where 2 multiplies 3 to give 6.”

   “Of all the possible combinations of factors above, only (2#92;cdot4)#43;(3#92;cdot5)#61;23. Carefully arranging the factors, therefore, to ensure that 2 multiplies 4 and 3 multiplies 5, we have 6x²#43;23x#43;20#61;(2x#43;5)(3x#43;4)”

noun

1. An act or instance of multiplying.

   “The extended instruction set may double the speed again if a lot of multiplies and divides are done.”

   “List the number of adds and multiplies for each of the forms (6) , (7), and (8).”

adv

1. (not-comparable)In many or multiple ways.

adj

1. (not-comparable)Having more than one ply or layer; multilayered.

   “2,751,151. MULTIPLY PAPER SACKS. […] A multiply paper bag […] the plies of the side flaps being stepped longitudinally of the bag […]”