Mul·ti·ply v. t. [imp. & p. p. Multiplied p. pr. & vb. n. Multiplying ]
 1. To increase in number; to make more numerous; to add quantity to.
    Impunity will multiply motives to disobedience.   --Ames.
 2. Math. 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. [Obs.]
 Multiplying gear Mach., gear for increasing speed.
 Multiplying lens. Opt. See under Lens.
 Lens n.; pl. Lenses   Opt. A piece of glass, or other transparent substance, ground with two opposite regular surfaces, either both curved, or one curved and the other plane, and commonly used, either singly or combined, in optical instruments, for changing the direction of rays of light, and thus magnifying objects, or otherwise modifying vision. In practice, the curved surfaces are usually spherical, though rarely cylindrical, or of some other figure.
 Note: ☞ Of spherical lenses, there are six varieties, as shown in section in the figures herewith given: viz.,  plano-concave;  double-concave;  plano-convex;  double-convex;  converging concavo-convex, or converging meniscus;  diverging concavo-convex, or diverging meniscus.
 Crossed lens Opt., a double-convex lens with one radius equal to six times the other.
 Crystalline lens. Anat. See Eye.
 Fresnel lens Opt., a compound lens formed by placing around a central convex lens rings of glass so curved as to have the same focus; used, especially in lighthouses, for concentrating light in a particular direction; -- so called from the inventor.
 Multiplying lens or Multiplying glass Opt., a lens one side of which is plane and the other convex, but made up of a number of plane faces inclined to one another, each of which presents a separate image of the object viewed through it, so that the object is, as it were, multiplied.
 Polyzonal lens. See Polyzonal.
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