1. The act or process of increasing; growth in bulk, guantity, number,
value, or amount; augmentation; enlargement.
The seminary that furnisheth matter for the formation and increment
of animal and vegetable bodies.
Woodward.
A nation, to be great, ought to be compressed in its increment by
nations more civilized than itself.
Coleridge.
2. Matter added; increase; produce; production; -- opposed to
decrement. "Large increment." J. Philips.
3. (Math.) The increase of a variable quantity or fraction from its
present value to its next ascending value; the finite quantity,
generally variable, by which a variable quantity is increased.
4. (Rhet.) An amplification without strict climax, as in the following
passage:
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things
are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report,
. . . think on these things.
Phil. iv. 8.
Infinitesimal increment (Math.), an infinitesimally small variation
considered in Differential Calculus. See Calculus. -- Method of
increments (Math.), a calculus founded on the properties of the
successive values of variable quantities and their differences or
increments. It differs from the method of fluxions in treating these
differences as finite, instead of infinitely small, and is equivalent
to the calculus of finite differences.
In`cre*men"tal (?), a. (Biol.) Pertaining to, or resulting from, the
process of growth; as, the incremental lines in the dentine of teeth.
In"cre*pate (?), v. t. [L. increpatus, p. p. of increpare to upbraid;
pref. in- in, against + crepare to talk noisily.] To chide; to rebuke;
to reprove. [Obs.]
In`cre*pa"tion (?), n. [L. increpatio.] A chiding; rebuke; reproof.
[Obs.] Hammond.
In*cres"cent (?), a. [L. increscens, -entis, p. pr. of increscere. See
Increase.]