reduce

[Re*duce·]

You reduce something when you lessen its volume, size, or degree. That's why we say when someone goes on a diet, it's because they want to reduce; it's a polite way of suggesting they need to drop pounds and become a smaller size.

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To bring or lead back to any former place or condition.

Verb
take off weight

Verb
lessen the strength or flavor of a solution or mixture; "cut bourbon"

Verb
narrow or limit; "reduce the influx of foreigners"

Verb
cook until very little liquid is left; "The cook reduced the sauce by boiling it for a long time"

Verb
be cooked until very little liquid is left; "The sauce should reduce to one cup"

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Verb
be the essential element; "The proposal boils down to a compromise"

Verb
to remove oxygen from a compound, or cause to react with hydrogen or form a hydride, or to undergo an increase in the number of electrons

Verb
make smaller; "reduce an image"

Verb
reduce in size; reduce physically; "Hot water will shrink the sweater"; "Can you shrink this image?"

Verb
make less complex; "reduce a problem to a single question"

Verb
reduce in scope while retaining essential elements; "The manuscript must be shortened"

Verb
cut down on; make a reduction in; "reduce your daily fat intake"; "The employer wants to cut back health benefits"

Verb
reposition (a broken bone after surgery) back to its normal site

Verb
undergo meiosis; "The cells reduce"

Verb
lower in grade or rank or force somebody into an undignified situation; "She reduced her niece to a servant"

Verb
simplify the form of a mathematical equation of expression by substituting one term for another

Verb
lessen and make more modest; "reduce one''s standard of living"

Verb
bring to humbler or weaker state or condition; "He reduced the population to slavery"

Verb
put down by force or intimidation; "The government quashes any attempt of an uprising"; "China keeps down her dissidents very efficiently"; "The rich landowners subjugated the peasants working the land"

n.
To bring or lead back to any former place or condition.

n.
To bring to any inferior state, with respect to rank, size, quantity, quality, value, etc.; to diminish; to lower; to degrade; to impair; as, to reduce a sergeant to the ranks; to reduce a drawing; to reduce expenses; to reduce the intensity of heat.

n.
To bring to terms; to humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture; as, to reduce a province or a fort.

n.
To bring to a certain state or condition by grinding, pounding, kneading, rubbing, etc.; as, to reduce a substance to powder, or to a pasty mass; to reduce fruit, wood, or paper rags, to pulp.

n.
To bring into a certain order, arrangement, classification, etc.; to bring under rules or within certain limits of descriptions and terms adapted to use in computation; as, to reduce animals or vegetables to a class or classes; to reduce a series of observations in astronomy; to reduce language to rules.

n.
To change, as numbers, from one denomination into another without altering their value, or from one denomination into others of the same value; as, to reduce pounds, shillings, and pence to pence, or to reduce pence to pounds; to reduce days and hours to minutes, or minutes to days and hours.

n.
To change the form of a quantity or expression without altering its value; as, to reduce fractions to their lowest terms, to a common denominator, etc.

n.
To bring to the metallic state by separating from impurities; hence, in general, to remove oxygen from; to deoxidize; to combine with, or to subject to the action of, hydrogen; as, ferric iron is reduced to ferrous iron; or metals are reduced from their ores; -- opposed to oxidize.

n.
To restore to its proper place or condition, as a displaced organ or part; as, to reduce a dislocation, a fracture, or a hernia.

Reduce

Re*duce" (r&esl;*d&umac;s"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Reduced (-d&umac;st"),; p. pr. & vb. n. Reducing (-d&umac;"s&icr;ng).] [L. reducere, reductum; pref. red-. re-, re- + ducere to lead. See Duke, and cf. Redoubt, n.] 1. To bring or lead back to any former place or condition. [Obs.]

And to his brother's house reduced his wife.

The sheep must of necessity be scattered, unless the great Shephered of souls oppose, or some of his delegates reduce and direct us.

2. To bring to any inferior state, with respect to rank, size, quantity, quality, value, etc.; to diminish; to lower; to degrade; to impair; as, to reduce a sergeant to the ranks; to reduce a drawing; to reduce expenses; to reduce the intensity of heat. "An ancient but reduced family." Sir W. Scott.

Nothing so excellent but a man may fasten upon something belonging to it, to reduce it.

Having reduced Their foe to misery beneath their fears.

Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced.

3. To bring to terms; to humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture; as, to reduce a province or a fort. 4. To bring to a certain state or condition by grinding, pounding, kneading, rubbing, etc.; as, to reduce a substance to powder, or to a pasty mass; to reduce fruit, wood, or paper rags, to pulp.

It were but right And equal to reduce me to my dust.

5. To bring into a certain order, arrangement, classification, etc.; to bring under rules or within certain limits of descriptions and terms adapted to use in computation; as, to reduce animals or vegetables to a class or classes; to reduce a series of observations in astronomy; to reduce language to rules. 6. (Arith.) (a) To change, as numbers, from one denomination into another without altering their value, or from one denomination into others of the same value; as, to reduce pounds, shillings, and pence to pence, or to reduce pence to pounds; to reduce days and hours to minutes, or minutes to days and hours. (b) To change the form of a quantity or expression without altering its value; as, to reduce fractions to their lowest terms, to a common denominator, etc. 7. (Chem.) To bring to the metallic state by separating from impurities; hence, in general, to remove oxygen from; to deoxidize; to combine with, or to subject to the action of, hydrogen; as, ferric iron is reduced to ferrous iron; or metals are reduced from their ores; -- opposed to oxidize. 8. (Med.) To restore to its proper place or condition, as a displaced organ or part; as, to reduce a dislocation, a fracture, or a hernia. Reduced iron (Chem.), metallic iron obtained through deoxidation of an oxide of iron by exposure to a current of hydrogen or other reducing agent. When hydrogen is used the product is called also iron by hydrogen. -- To reduce an equation (Alg.), to bring the unknown quantity by itself on one side, and all the known quantities on the other side, without destroying the equation. -- To reduce an expression (Alg.), to obtain an equivalent expression of simpler form. -- To reduce a square (Mil.), to reform the line or column from the square. Syn. -- To diminish; lessen; decrease; abate; shorten; curtail; impair; lower; subject; subdue; subjugate; conquer.

To bring or lead back to any former place or condition.

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Usage Examples

Adulthood is the ever-shrinking period between childhood and old age. It is the apparent aim of modern industrial societies to reduce this period to a minimum.

A rise in the level of saving can reduce aggregate activity temporarily but only a sustained high level of saving makes it possible to have the sustained high level of business investment that contributes to the long-run growth of output.

I never had the high-paying job or the company car. It took me over a decade to pay off my student loans. I never had to worry about where to dock my yacht to reduce my taxes.

Complainers change their complaints, but they never reduce the amount of time spent in complaining.

Few companies that installed computers to reduce the employment of clerks have realized their expectations... They now need more, and more expensive clerks even though they call them 'operators' or 'programmers.'

And I think most people in this country want to see a president that's got the courage to say we're going to cut the tax burden, and reduce the regulatory climate, and we're going to get Americans working.

I have been dairy free for several years, and I started because I felt it was going to reduce my allergies, which it did, and help me lose weight, which it did.

Fortunately, somewhere between chance and mystery lies imagination, the only thing that protects our freedom, despite the fact that people keep trying to reduce it or kill it off altogether.

Misspelled Form

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Other Usage Examples

I honestly don't know, but if America continues to refuse to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, I see a bleak future not only for American society, but for the world as a whole. This is a global problem that is not going away, and the United States is an obstacle to solving it.

As president, Reagan worked very well with Democrats to do big things. It is true that he worked to reduce the size of government and cut federal taxes and he eliminated many regulations, but he also raised taxes when necessary.

By adopting a wonderful mutt, you'll save a life and help reduce animal homelessness while also boosting your chances of a more robust new furry friend, as mixed-breed dogs have demonstrated better health and longer life spans than their purebred cousins.

As the GAO report recognizes, the long-term health of our forests relies on additional fuel reduction options and funding to reduce the risks that catastrophic fire poses to our nation's ecosystems, communities and federal budgetary resources.

Growing hemp as nature designed it is vital to our urgent need to reduce greenhouse gases and ensure the survival of our planet.

I can tell you that too much money is corrupting American politics. Don't blame the American public. The U.S. Supreme Court has a lot to answer for, because it has made it impossible for Congress to reduce the corrupting influence of money on American political life.

Actually, I think my view is compatible with much of the work going on now in neuroscience and psychology, where people are studying the relationship of consciousness to neural and cognitive processes without really trying to reduce it to those processes.

All the mathematical sciences are founded on relations between physical laws and laws of numbers, so that the aim of exact science is to reduce the problems of nature to the determination of quantities by operations with numbers.

I pray God I may never be brought to the melancholy trial but, if ever I should, it will then be known how far I can reduce to practice principles which I know to be founded in truth.