Literary notes about augment (AI summary)
Writers employ "augment" to signify an increase or intensification that can be both literal and metaphorical. In certain passages, the term enhances sensory experience, as when voices or natural elements are magnified to deepen atmosphere or emotion [1, 2]. In other contexts, it serves to denote the expansion or intensification of tangible conditions—such as strength, suffering, or legal penalties [3, 4, 5]. Occasionally, its use is more abstract, adding or modifying ideas or states without merely numerical addition [6, 7]. Thus, "augment" becomes a versatile tool in literature, enriching descriptions by suggesting the dynamic build-up of qualities or quantities.
- Screened by the lattice-work of the galleries are the women, who, with their treble voices, augment the solemn chant that vibrates on the air.
— from Rabbi and Priest: A Story by Milton Goldsmith - Around the shield the waves of ocean flow'd, The realms of Tethys, which unnumber'd streams, In azure mazes rolling o'er the earth, Seem'd to augment.
— from The Iliad by Homer - Their cries served only to augment their torture.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 04 (of 12) by Edmund Burke - This is called, using the conquered foe to augment one's own strength.
— from The Art of War by active 6th century B.C. Sunzi - For it is competent for the Grand Lodge, on an appeal, to augment, reduce or wholly abrogate the penalty inflicted by its subordinate.
— from The Principles of Masonic Law by Albert Gallatin Mackey - Just as we come to know them better, intermediate forms flow in, and doubts as to specific limits augment."
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - To diminish the number of the shady, to augment the number of the luminous,—that is the object.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
