multiply

Word family

Related topics: Maths

mul·ti·ply /ˈmʌltəplaɪ/ verb (multiplied, multiplying, multiplies)

1 [intransitiveI, transitiveT]HM to do a calculation in which you add a number to itself a particular number of times 乘，乘以 → divide

Children will learn to multiply in the second grade.

儿童在二年级学习乘法。

multiply something by something

Multiply the total by 12.

把总数乘以12。

2 [intransitiveI, transitiveT]INCREASE IN NUMBER OR AMOUNT to increase by a large amount or number, or to make something do this （使）大大增加，（使）倍增

The amount of information available has multiplied.

可获得的信息大大增加了。

Smoking multiplies the risk of heart attacks and other health problems.

吸烟大大增加了患心脏病和其他疾病的危险性。

3 [intransitiveI] to breed 繁殖

Bacteria multiply quickly in warm food.

细菌在温热的食物里繁殖得很快。

Examples from the Corpus

multiply• If the songbird population has thinned, the boats in the cove have multiplied.• Environmental laws have multiplied.• Since they started borrowing money, their problems have multiplied.• 11 multiplied by 10 is 110.• To find the price in yen, you multiply by 86.• Quite so: distance multiplied by force.• The likely total number of dies can then be multiplied by the average number of coins per die.• The number of settlements multiplied enormously.• But the parasite had multiplied explosively in his blood.• The germs multiply quickly in the heat, and can produce food poisoning.• The insects multiply rapidly during hot, dry summers.• If you multiply ten by seven you get seventy.• Associating democracy with fear certainly multiplies the ambiguities and increases the uncertainties.• Computers have multiplied the possibilities open to the artist.• In particular multiplying the wavefunction by - I does not change the physics at all.• The harpies from Paris running the road houses which must inevitably multiply will be a worse scourge than the mosquitoes.

multiply something by something• 3 multiplied by 4 is 12.

From Longman Business Dictionary