hundredfold, a., adv., and n.
(ˈhʌndrədfəʊld)
Forms: see hundred; also 2–4 -fald, 3 -feald, 3–4 -feld(e, 4 -foold, -uald, 4–6 -folde.
[f. hundred + -fold. Cf. ON. hundrað-falda, MHG. hundertvalt, Ger. hundertfalt, -fältig. OE. had hundfeald.]
A. adj. A hundred times as much or as many.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 203 He shal fon þer-to-yenes hundredfeld mede. c 1200 Ormin 19903 He wollde..Hiss mede ȝeldenn hunndreddfald Forr hise gode dedess. 1552 Huloet, Hundreth folde, centuplex. |
B. adv. A hundred times (in amount).
| a 1200 Moral Ode 54 He hit scal finden eft þer and hundred fald mare. Ibid. 247 Þer is fur þet is undret fald hattre þene bo ure. |
b. Now always a (an) hundredfold.
| c 1320 Cast. Love 1189 He that alle thyng may welde, Dowbled his peyne an hondred felde. 1340 Ayenb. 191 Þet god wolde yelde an hondreduald al þet me yeaue. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxiv. 112 Mare acceptable..þan if he gafe him a hundreth falde so mykill. 1797 Godwin Enquirer i. ix. 82 It diminishes them a hundred fold. 1840 Macaulay Ess., Ranke (1854) II. 135 Armies which out⁓numbered them a hundredfold. |
C. n.
1. A hundred times the amount or number.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 137 Eower weldede scal eft beon imeten eower mede, and bi hunderfalde mare. a 1300 Cursor M. 17055 (Cott.) But o ioi an hundret fald, he dublid þe þi sang. 1382 Wyclif Gen. xxvi. 12 Isaac..sowide in that loond, and he fonde that ȝeer the hundryd foold. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xiii. 158 He shal haue an hundred⁓folde of heuene-ryche blisse. 1526 Tindale Matt. xiii. 8 Some an hundred fold, some fifty fold, some thyrty folde. 1655 Milton Sonn., Massacre Piedmont, That from these may grow A hundredfold, who..Early may fly the Babylonian woe. 1747 Chesterfield Let. to Prior 6 May, Seed..which indeed produced one hundred fold. |
2. A local name for Lady's Bedstraw, Galium verum, from its numerous crowded blossoms.
| 1853 G. Johnston Nat. Hist. E. Bord. I. 100 As the flowers are exceedingly numerous and clustered, our common people call the plant A Hundred-fald. |