multiplying

Pluralmultiplyings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of multiply.

   Weeds were multiplying across the untended field by midsummer.

   Multiplying the dosage without a doctor's advice can be dangerous.

   Note

   The same spelling does three jobs. After a form of be it builds the progressive, either on its own (weeds were multiplying) or with an object (multiplying the dosage). As a gerund it keeps that object directly, with no preposition. Once it needs of before the object, as in a multiplying of length by width, it has become the countable noun, which takes its own plural, multiplyings.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   An act or instance of multiplication, in which one quantity is scaled by another.

   A single multiplying of length by width gives the area of a rectangle.

   In the algorithm, each multiplying of the running total costs one operation.

   Oppositedivision

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