1606 T. Palmer Ess. Meanes to make Trauailes more Profitable ii. 44 The multiplex and different gouernments, and sundrie policies there found; namely, of Rome, of Venice, of Naples [etc.].

1682 N. Grew Anat. Plants iv. ii. ii. 167 The reason why the Figure of the Flower is more multiplex, than that of the Leaf.

1822 T. L. Peacock Maid Marian i. 15 The whole complex and multiplex detail of the noble science of dinner.

1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus iii. x. 101/1 Their raiment..is fastened together by a multiplex combination of buttons, thrums, and skewers.

1886 W. Pater Ess. from Guardian (1896) 25 So multiplex is the result that minds of quite opposite type might well discover in these pages their own special thought or humour.

1938 Psychiatry 1 125/2 A parataxic situation, a much more complicated entity in that two of the four or more persons now concerned, while illusory, are real antagonists to any collaboration of A and Mrs. A. Our Mr. A has become multiplex.

1992 Lit. & Ling. Computing 7 136/2 Language is multiplex and cannot be cast into ready-made patterns.

1813 J. M. Good et al. Pantologia Multiplex Corol, many-fold, or having petals lying over each other in two or more folds or rows.

1856 J. S. Henslow Dict. Bot. Terms 111 Multiplex, where many of the same parts or organs occur together.

1921 Jrnl. Exper. Zool. 32 110 Duplex and multiplex limbs arise frequently from the transplanted buds.

1838 F. Haywood tr. I. Kant Critick Pure Reason Explan. Terms 648 Diverse, Multifarious, Multiplex, Various, (Mannichfaltig).

1873 R. Coddington Brit. Patent 1,395 13 My Invention has particular reference to ‘multiplex telegraphy’, or the employment of a number of operators sending without conflict a number of different messages upon a single wire.

1894 W. H. Preece in Times 27 Jan. 4/3 The multiplex system of working of Mr. Delany, by which..six messages could be transmitted simultaneously.

1934 Electr. Communication 13 ii. 159 Frequency bands of the order of 1,000 kc. or more may be transmitted for long distances over coaxial lines and utilised for purposes of multiplex telephony or television.

1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 261 Multiplex radio transmissions and the single groove of a stereo disc each contain more than one channel.

1973 Mod. Railways Jan. 12/2 Interlockings within three or four miles of Bristol are operated by individual circuits... Beyond this distance electronic time division multiplex equipment is used.

1991 Intermedia Mar. 13/1 The introduction of long distance multiplex transmission systems using coaxial cables and microwave equipment..led to a remarkable expansion of Japan's telephone network.

1890 J. S. Billings National Med. Dict. II. 183/2 Myoclonia congenita, paramyoclonus multiplex.

1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VIII. 895 Eyelid xanthoma differs essentially in structure from the multiplex variety.

1967 Jrnl. Pediatrics 70 505 (heading) Multiple epiphyseal dysplasia (dysplasia epiphysalis multiplex).

1990 Ann. Otol., Rhinol. & Laryngol. 99 94 Arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC) is a rare congenital disorder characterized by multiple fixed-joint deformities of the upper and lower extremities.

1971 Manhattan Mercury 23 Apr. 5/1 Announced the opening of 17 multiplex theaters..this year, an addition of more than 20,000 seats.

1982 N.Y. Times 30 May iii. 17/1 The Sunrise..[and] Mr. Redstone's..Drive-In, have been replaced by two ‘multiplex’ cinema complexes—large indoor movie houses with as many as 12 screens.

1990 Sun (Baltimore) 7 Mar. c1/2 A joint U.S.-Soviet venture..will build multiplex theaters in Leningrad and Moscow.

2000 Northern Echo (Electronic ed.) 6 Apr. A £5m multiplex theatre in the North-East will be one of the first UGC-branded cinemas to open in the UK.

1570 H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. v. f. 132 For the multiplex of 3..ye shall haue 18.

1651 T. Rudd Euclides Elem. Geom. 183 When equimultiplices being taken, the multiplex of the first exceedeth the multiplex of the second..then [etc.].

1651 T. Rudd Euclides Elem. Geom. 195 Like parts of multiplices..have one and the same proportion.

1695 W. Alingham Geom. Epitomiz'd 61 The double, treble, (or any other Multiplex..) of two quantities are in the same reason as the Quantities themselves.

1836 J. W. Semple Kant's Metaphysic of Ethic Introd. p. li Even Space and Time, though singulars a priori, do, so far forth as they consist of partes extra partes, exhibit a multiplex.

1959 J. W. Freebody Telegr. ii. 50/2 This printer was used in connexion with the Murray multiplex.

1970 Toronto Daily Star 24 Sept. 26/1 (advt.) It..tapes for multiplex and even makes ‘sound with sound’ recordings.

1993 Multichannel News 4 Jan. 18/3 Graff PPV and TVN Entertainment are currently offering an eight channel multiplex via satellite.

1969 Jrnl. Inst. Navigation 22 472 It is practicable to consider a multiplex of paths from a given installation.

1981 NatWest Mag. Mar. 10/1 Every day sees the archives of the future in the making. The dispassionate selection of these from the multiplex of records produced by any large business organisation today is no easy task.

1994 New Scientist 13 Aug. 36/3 Cytowic is among a growing number of neurologists who see the brain as a multiplex.

1969 N.Y. Times 20 July f15/2 Mr. Durwood said the multi-theater complex was catching on.]

1972 Washington Post 21 June b6/3 Shopping centers and multiplexes are at the crest of the wave of the future.

1982 Christian Sci. Monitor (Nexis) 25 May 19 Multiplexes will be gone in 10 years. With the increasing accessibility of movies on video, there will be no need for them.

1986 Daily Tel. 18 Dec. 10/6 The out-of-town multiplex is beginning to multiply fast even as the high street cinemas..are ‘rationalised’ out of existence.

1990 Screen Internat. 24 Mar. 4/3 Wimpey is thought to have had talks with the largest multiplex operator in the territory, UCI, to develop a four-screen cinema.

2000 Bath Chron. (Electronic ed.) 27 Dec. Television stars supposedly can't make it on the big screen. So how come George Clooney's been like a rash over the multiplexes?

1885 C. F. Himes Address Opening J. Tome Building 9 The wire was duplexed, then quadraplexed, and to-day multiplexed in such a way that dozens of messages may speed along the same wire at the same time in both directions.

1925 C. A. Wright Telephone Communication xiii. 317 The terminal equipment required to multiplex a telephone line is costly and its use is, consequently, justified only with long lines.

1955 Sci. News Let. 5 Mar. 158/2 You may soon be able to hear programs from your local FM station—minus commercials—in buses..and on the job. This is just one of the possibilities of a system being considered..that would allow FM stations to ‘multiplex’ their broadcasts. In the process, two separate signals would be sent from the same tower using the same radio frequencies.

1969 Sci. Jrnl. Dec. 42/3 A colour TV system multiplexes (by frequency division) video, colour and sound information.

1991 Personal Computer World Feb. 6/2 Thirty two of these signals can be multiplexed together to form a 2Mb/s data stream.