'Reduce' definitions:

Definition of 'reduce'

(from WordNet)
verb
Cut down on; make a reduction in; "reduce your daily fat intake"; "The employer wants to cut back health benefits" [syn: reduce, cut down, cut back, trim, trim down, trim back, cut, bring down]
verb
Make less complex; "reduce a problem to a single question"
verb
Bring to humbler or weaker state or condition; "He reduced the population to slavery"
verb
Simplify the form of a mathematical equation of expression by substituting one term for another
verb
Lower in grade or rank or force somebody into an undignified situation; "She reduced her niece to a servant"
verb
Be the essential element; "The proposal boils down to a compromise" [syn: reduce, come down, boil down]
verb
Reduce in size; reduce physically; "Hot water will shrink the sweater"; "Can you shrink this image?" [syn: shrink, reduce]
verb
Lessen and make more modest; "reduce one's standard of living"
verb
Make smaller; "reduce an image" [syn: reduce, scale down] [ant: blow up, enlarge, magnify]
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 [syn: deoxidize, deoxidise, reduce] [ant: oxidate, oxidise, oxidize]
verb
Narrow or limit; "reduce the influx of foreigners" [syn: reduce, tighten]
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" [syn: repress, quash, keep down, subdue, subjugate, reduce]
verb
Undergo meiosis; "The cells reduce"
verb
Reposition (a broken bone after surgery) back to its normal site
verb
Destress and thus weaken a sound when pronouncing it
verb
Reduce in scope while retaining essential elements; "The manuscript must be shortened" [syn: abridge, foreshorten, abbreviate, shorten, cut, contract, reduce] [ant: dilate, elaborate, enlarge, expand, expatiate, exposit, expound, flesh out, lucubrate]
verb
Be cooked until very little liquid is left; "The sauce should reduce to one cup" [syn: boil down, reduce, decoct, concentrate]
verb
Cook until very little liquid is left; "The cook reduced the sauce by boiling it for a long time" [syn: reduce, boil down, concentrate]
verb
Lessen the strength or flavor of a solution or mixture; "cut bourbon" [syn: dilute, thin, thin out, reduce, cut]
verb
Take off weight [syn: reduce, melt off, lose weight, slim, slenderize, thin, slim down] [ant: gain, put on]

Definition of 'Reduce'

From: GCIDE
  • Reduce \Re*duce"\ (r[-e]*d[=u]s"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Reduced (-d[=u]st"),; p. pr. & vb. n. Reducing (-d[=u]"s[i^]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.] [1913 Webster]
  • And to his brother's house reduced his wife. --Chapman. [1913 Webster]
  • The sheep must of necessity be scattered, unless the great Shephered of souls oppose, or some of his delegates reduce and direct us. --Evelyn. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • Nothing so excellent but a man may fasten upon something belonging to it, to reduce it. --Tillotson. [1913 Webster]
  • Having reduced Their foe to misery beneath their fears. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
  • Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced. --Hawthorne. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. To bring to terms; to humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture; as, to reduce a province or a fort. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • It were but right And equal to reduce me to my dust. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 7. (Chem.) To add an electron to an atom or ion. Specifically: To remove oxygen from; to deoxidize. (Metallurgy) To bring to the metallic state by separating from combined oxygen and impurities; as, metals are reduced from their ores. (Chem.) To combine with, or to subject to the action of, hydrogen or any other reducing agent; as, ferric iron is reduced to ferrous iron; aldehydes can be reduced to alcohols by lithium hydride; -- opposed to oxidize. [1913 Webster +PJC]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • Syn: To diminish; lessen; decrease; abate; shorten; curtail; impair; lower; subject; subdue; subjugate; conquer. [1913 Webster]

Synonyms of 'reduce'

From: Moby Thesaurus

Words containing 'Reduce'