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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