swell the ranks

swell the ranks (third-person singular simple present swells the ranks, present participle swelling the ranks, simple past swelled the ranks, past participle swelled the ranks or swollen the ranks)

1. (transitive with of) To add significant numbers of members (to a group);
   • 1913, Western Australia. Education Department ·, Report, page cxxviii:

     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.

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

     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.

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

     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.

• “swell the ranks” (US) / “swell the ranks” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.