reduce Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb cut down on; make a reduction in
    trim; cut; cut back; bring down; cut down; trim down; trim back.
    • reduce your daily fat intake
    • The employer wants to cut back health benefits
  2. verb make less complex
    • reduce a problem to a single question
  3. verb bring to humbler or weaker state or condition
    • He reduced the population to slavery
  4. verb simplify the form of a mathematical equation of expression by substituting one term for another
  5. verb lower in grade or rank or force somebody into an undignified situation
    • She reduced her niece to a servant
  6. verb be the essential element
    boil down; come down.
    • The proposal boils down to a compromise
  7. verb reduce in size; reduce physically
    shrink.
    • Hot water will shrink the sweater
    • Can you shrink this image?
  8. verb lessen and make more modest
    • reduce one's standard of living
  9. verb make smaller
    scale down.
    • reduce an image
  10. 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
    deoxidize; deoxidise.
  11. verb narrow or limit
    tighten.
    • reduce the influx of foreigners
  12. verb put down by force or intimidation
    subdue; repress; quash; subjugate; keep down.
    • The government quashes any attempt of an uprising
    • China keeps down her dissidents very efficiently
    • The rich landowners subjugated the peasants working the land
  13. verb undergo meiosis
    • The cells reduce
  14. verb reposition (a broken bone after surgery) back to its normal site
  15. verb destress and thus weaken a sound when pronouncing it
  16. verb reduce in scope while retaining essential elements
    cut; abbreviate; abridge; shorten; contract; foreshorten.
    • The manuscript must be shortened
  17. verb be cooked until very little liquid is left
    decoct; concentrate; boil down.
    • The sauce should reduce to one cup
  18. verb cook until very little liquid is left
    boil down; concentrate.
    • The cook reduced the sauce by boiling it for a long time
  19. verb lessen the strength or flavor of a solution or mixture
    thin out; cut; dilute; thin.
    • cut bourbon
  20. verb take off weight
    slim; melt off; slenderize; slim down; lose weight; thin.

WordNet

Re*duce" transitive verb
Etymology
L. reducere, reductum; pref. red-. re-, re- + ducere to lead. See Duke, and cf. Redoubt, n.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Reduced present participle & verbal noun Reducing
Definitions
  1. To bring or lead back to any former place or condition. Obs.
    And to his brother's house reduced his wife. Chapman.
    The sheep must of necessity be scattered, unless the great Shephered of souls oppose, or some of his delegates reduce and direct us. Evelyn.
  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. Tillotson.
    Having reduced Their foe to misery beneath their fears. Milton.
    Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced. Hawthorne.
  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. Milton.
  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. Syn. -- To diminish; lessen; decrease; abate; shorten; curtail; impair; lower; subject; subdue; subjugate; conquer.

Webster 1913