Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To become greater or larger.
  • intransitive verb To multiply; reproduce.
  • intransitive verb To make greater or larger.
  • noun The act of increasing.
  • noun The amount or rate by which something is increased.
  • noun Obsolete Reproduction and spread; propagation.
  • idiom (on the increase) Increasing, especially in frequency of occurrence.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To become greater in any respect; become enlarged, extended, or multiplied; grow or advance in size, quantity, number, degree, etc.; augment; multiply; wax, as the moon.
  • To make greater in any respect; enlarge or extend in bulk, quantity, number, degree, etc.; add to; enhance; aggravate: opposed to diminish.
  • noun A growing larger, as in size, number, quantity, degree, etc.; augmentation; enlargement; extension; multiplication.
  • noun The amount or number added to the original stock, or by which the original stock is augmented; increment; profit; interest; produce; issue; offspring.
  • noun In astronomy, the period of increasing light or an increasing luminous phase; the waxing, as of the moon.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To augment or make greater in bulk, quantity, extent, value, or amount, etc.; to add to; to extend; to lengthen; to enhance; to aggravate.
  • intransitive verb To become greater or more in size, quantity, number, degree, value, intensity, power, authority, reputation, wealth; to grow; to augment; to advance; -- opposed to decrease.
  • intransitive verb To multiply by the production of young; to be fertile, fruitful, or prolific.
  • intransitive verb (Astron.) To become more nearly full; to show more of the surface; to wax.
  • intransitive verb (Math.) a function whose value increases when that of the variable increases, and decreases when the latter is diminished; also called a monotonically increasing function.
  • noun Addition or enlargement in size, extent, quantity, number, intensity, value, substance, etc.; augmentation; growth.
  • noun That which is added to the original stock by augmentation or growth; produce; profit; interest.
  • noun Progeny; issue; offspring.
  • noun obsolete Generation.
  • noun (Astron.) The period of increasing light, or luminous phase; the waxing; -- said of the moon.
  • noun the twixt of a rifle groove in which the angle of twist increases from the breech to the muzzle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive, of a quantity to become larger.
  • verb transitive To make (a quantity) larger.
  • noun An amount by which a quantity is increased.
  • noun For a quantity, the act or process of becoming larger
  • noun knitting The creation of one or more new stitches; see Increase (knitting).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb become bigger or greater in amount
  • verb make bigger or more
  • noun a quantity that is added
  • noun the act of increasing something
  • noun a change resulting in an increase
  • noun a process of becoming larger or longer or more numerous or more important
  • noun the amount by which something increases

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English encresen, from Old French encreistre, encreiss-, from Latin incrēscere : in-, intensive pref.; see in– + crēscere, to grow; see ker- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman encreistre, from Old French, from Latin increscere ("increase"), present active infinitive of increscō, from in ("in, on") + crescō ("grow").

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