vbl. sb. [f. TRIPLE v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the verb TRIPLE.
1603. Florio, Montaigne (1634), 94. It is a great … wonder for a man to double himselfe; and those that talke of tripling, know not, nor cannot reach unto the height of it.
1630. Delamain, Grammelogia, **j. The doubling, tripling [etc.] of Circles.
1853. Sir W. R. Hamilton, Lect. Quaternions, ii. 53. Two successive acts, of negatively doubling and negatively tripling, compound themselves into the single act of positively sextupling.
b. spec. See TRIPLE v. 1 c.
1891. Times, 26 Oct., 4/3. There is a fair amount of tripling of engines in old vessels ordered.
2. concr. a. pl. Three children at a birth; triplets.
1858. Lewes, Sea-side Stud., 246. This multiplication of individuals from one egg, this production of twins, or triplings, is a constant fact.
b. Min. A compound crystal made up of three independent individuals; a trilling, trin.
1895. Story-Maskelyne, Crystallogr., § 157. Such crystals are triple, quadruple, &c. hemitropes (or triplings, fourlings, &c.).
