multiply

Etymology 1

From Old French multiplier, from Latin multiplicō, from multi (“many”) + plicō (“I fold”). The noun presumably derives from the verb.

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 1786, Fisher Ames, Lucius Junius Brutus
   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. 1843, Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London
2. (transitive, arithmetic, with by) To perform multiplication on (a number).
   when you multiply 3 by 7, you get 21; he multiplied several numbers
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. 2013-07-20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
5. (intransitive, arithmetic) To perform multiplication.
   He had been multiplying, but it occurred to him he needed to resolve the exponents, first.
6. (transitive, rare) 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. 1983, Graham Flegg, Numbers, Dover, published 2002, page 154
   Of all the possible combinations of factors above, only (2·4)+(3·5)=23. Carefully arranging the factors, therefore, to ensure that 2 multiplies 4 and 3 multiplies 5, we have 6x²+23x+20=(2x+5)(3x+4) 1993, Edward T. Dowling, Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Mathematical Methods for Business and Economics, page 14

noun

1. (computer science) An act or instance of multiplying.
   The extended instruction set may double the speed again if a lot of multiplies and divides are done. 1975, Byte, numbers 1-8, page 14
   List the number of adds and multiplies for each of the forms (6) , (7), and (8). 2004, C. K. Birdsall, A. B. Langdon, Plasma Physics via Computer Simulation, page 75

Etymology 2

multiple + -ly.

adv

1. In many or multiple ways.