also 3 amunt, amounti, -ty, 4 amont, 5 amowynt, 6 admount. [a. OFr. amonte-r, amunter, amounter, f. amunt, amont, upward, lit. à mont:—L. ad montem to the hill, hill-ward, upward. In earlier usage occas. aphetized to mount, and then not distinguished from the simple MOUNT, a. Fr. monter. This is probably the reason why mount is now used in all the literal senses.]
Gen. sign. To go up, rise; ascend (a hill); rise to, attain to; come up in rank, quantity, value, meaning, or practical effect to.
† 1. intr. (simply, or with prep. defining relation to an object.) To go up, ascend, rise, mount. Obs.
c. 1250. O. Kent. Serm., in O. E. Misc., 28. Ase se smech … goth upward … Swo amuntet si gode biddinge to gode.
1470. Harding, Chron., cii. Death alone [to his corps] amounted, Dryuyng his soule out fro the worldly nest.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, X. iii. My lord … amounted vpon his horse.
1577. H. Peacham, Gard. Eloq., 106. When the Larke doth fyrst amounte on high.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., I. IX. liv. So up he rose and thence amounted streight.
1631. Markham, Way to Wealth, VI. III. x. (1668), 34. When any bough or spray shall amount above the rest.
† 2. trans. To ascend, climb, mount. Obs. rare.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 395. Þay cryed vchone, Þat amounted þe masse.
† 3. intr. To ascend or go back in time. Obs. rare.
1704. Hearne, Ductor Hist., I. 398. Their earliest Observations … amounted no higher than 1903 Years before that Time.
† 4. intr. To rise, mount up, increase. a. in quantity or amount; b. in value. Obs.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 173. This shippe lading the same commodity will cause it to amount in price.
1677. Houssaie’s Govt. Venice, 177. They have a certain allowance, which with their other Fees … amounts, and makes their Revenue very considerable.
1706. Phillips, Amount, to rise up in Value, or Tenour.
5. To rise in number or quantity so as to reach; to come to (a specified number or quantity). † a. trans. with simple obj. Obs.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 6020. Thes kyngis ost … amounted fyve hundrod thousand Knyghtis.
c. 1391. Chaucer, Astrolabe, I. § 16. Þat amonteth 360 degres.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccv. 186. The som amounted v thousand pounde.
[1630. Wadsworth, Sp. Pilgr., iii. 14. The number … ordinarily neither amounts above or under an 100.]
† b. with quasi-advb. obj. Obs.
a. 1325. Metr. Hom., 3. For [all than] sall we yeld acount Quat that wisdom mai amount.
1366. Maundev., xix. 213. Now may men wel rekene, how moche that it amountethe.
c. intr. with to.
1546. Langley, Polyd. Verg., I. 111. The multitude admounted to suche infinitee of numbre.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., IV. i. 30. Which doth amount to three odde Duckets more Than I stand debted to this Gentleman.
1696. Whiston, Th. Earth, III. (1722), 250. The Posterity of Jacob … amounted to six hundred thousand Males.
1704. Lond. Gaz., mmmmxlvi/2. They amount now to above 11000.
1852. McCulloch, Taxation, II. x. 366. The entries for consumption amounted to 1,733,816 imperial gallons.
1863. Cox, Hist. Eng. Govt., II. ii. 312. The debt amounted to less than forty shillings.
† 6. intr. To arise as the result of addition; to be the sum; to result. Obs.
1542. Recorde, Gr. Artes (1575), 118. Write that that amounteth, vnder the lowest line.
1571. Digges, Geom. Pract., III. vi. Whervnto if ye adioyn 126 … there amounteth 302.
1647. Fuller, Good Th. in Worse T., xiv. The aforesaid number will amount of infants and old folk. Ibid. (1650), Pisgah Sight, Ded. 2. A constellation … the lustre thereof amounting from many stars together.
7. To come up to in meaning, effect or substance; to be equivalent to. † a. trans. with quasi-advb. obj.: To mean, signify. Obs.
1297. R. Glouc., 497. The erchebissop nolde come, vor it ne ssolde amounti noȝt.
a. 1300. Leg. Rood, 240 (1871), 38. Wat þis somounce amounty [v.r. amounti] schal … Ich wene þe quene enqueri wole.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sqr’s T., 100. Thus much amounteth al þat euere he mente.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 54. The more that he his sweven accompteth, The lasse he wot, what it amounteth.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Amowyntyn, or sygnifyyn, Denoto, significo.
c. 1460. Lybeaus Disc., 1471. Tell me, mayde chast, What amounteth thys.
b. intr. with to. To be equivalent when taken in its full force or significance, to come practically to, be tantamount to.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 281. Though I had her love wonne, It might into no prise amounte.
1533. More, Debell. Salem, Wks. 1557, 994/2. The verye whole sum [of the reason] amounteth to no more, but that it mai somtime happen, that an innocent may take harme therby.
1695. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), III. 486. The late disorder … made by the Jacobites amounts to high treason.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 494, ¶ 4. The proofs of it do not amount to a demonstration.
1865. Trollope, Belton Estate, xv. 178. Such a speech … seemed to her almost to amount to insult.
† 8. causal. To cause to rise, to raise or elevate, in quality, rank or estimation. Obs.
1563. T. Howell, Arb. Amitie (1879), 97. Right thus thou mayst thy praise amount on hie.
1599. Broughton’s Lett., vii. 21. [They] amounted him to bee the Chiefe professor in Diuinitie.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., IX. 110. Here no Papists were arraigned to amount it to a Popish miracle.
