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.