The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Increase \In"crease\ (?; 277), n. [OE. encres, encresse. See
Increase, v. i.]
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1. Addition or enlargement in size, extent, quantity, number,
intensity, value, substance, etc.; augmentation; growth.
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As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on. --Shak.
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For things of tender kind for pleasure made
Shoot up with swift increase, and sudden are
decay'd. --Dryden.
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2. That which is added to the original stock by augmentation
or growth; produce; profit; interest.
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Take thou no usury of him, or increase. --Lev. xxv.
36.
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Let them not live to taste this land's increase.
--Shak.
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3. Progeny; issue; offspring.
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All the increase of thy house shall die in the
flower of their age. --1 Sam. ii.
33.
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4. Generation. [Obs.] "Organs of increase." --Shak.
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5. (Astron.) The period of increasing light, or luminous
phase; the waxing; -- said of the moon.
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Seeds, hair, nails, hedges, and herbs will grow
soonest if set or cut in the increase of the moon.
--Bacon.
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Increase twist, the twixt of a rifle groove in which the
angle of twist increases from the breech to the muzzle.
Syn: Enlargement; extension; growth; development; increment;
addition; accession; production.
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