Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Increase \In"crease\ (?; 277), n. [OE. encres, encresse. See
   {Increase}, v. i.]
   1. Addition or enlargement in size, extent, quantity, number,
      intensity, value, substance, etc.; augmentation; growth.

            As if increase of appetite had grown By what if fed
            on.                                   --Shak.

            For things of tender kind for pleasure made Shoot up
            with swift increase, and sudden are decay'd.
                                                  --Dryden.

   2. That which is added to the original stock by augmentation
      or growth; produce; profit; interest.

            Take thou no usury of him, or increase. --Lev. xxv.
                                                  36.

            Let them not live to taste this land's increase.
                                                  --Shak.

   3. Progeny; issue; offspring.

            All the increase of thy house shall die in the
            flower of their age.                  --1 Sam. ii.
                                                  33.

   4. Generation. [Obs.] ``Organs of increase.'' --Shak.

   5. (Astron.) The period of increasing light, or luminous
      phase; the waxing; -- said of the moon.

            Seeds, hair, nails, hedges, and herbs will grow
            soonest if set or cut in the increase of the moon.
                                                  --Bacon.

   {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.