swell the ranks

present singular third person swells the ranks · participle present swelling the ranks · past swelled the ranks · participle past swelled the ranks · participle past swollen the ranks

1. To add significant numbers of members (to a group).

   To these must, accordingly, be added some one hundred more companies, not qualifying for consolidation, but which, nevertheless, swell the ranks of the Generali Group-owned companies.

   1998, Giancarlo Colombo, Who's who in Italy 1998, page 2614

   2 more examples

   All through the Empire the unskilled labourer is the one who feels the stress of hard times, when they do come, the most, and it is this class that goes very largely to swell the ranks of the unemployed.

   1913, Western Australia. Education Department ·, Report, page cxxviii

   Virtually all of them will swell the ranks of law-abiding, industrious, self-sufficient and successful young Americans, while the numbers among the wayward lawless, dependent, and destitute are noticeably reduced.

   1989, E. Dorian Gadsden, Progress Against the Tide, page 186