Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Multiply

Multiply , transitive verb

[French multiplier, Latin multiplicare, from 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.
(Mathematics) 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. [Obsolete]
Collocations (2)
Multiplying gear (Machinery) , gear for increasing speed.
Multiplying lens (Optics) , See under Lens.

Multiply , intransitive verb

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. [Obsolete] — Chaucer