Definition of Reduce

1. Verb. Cut down on; make a reduction in. "They will reduce the duet"; "The employer wants to cut back health benefits"

Exact synonyms: Bring Down, Cut, Cut Back, Cut Down, Trim, Trim Back, Trim Down
Specialized synonyms: Shorten, Spill, Quench, Retrench, Slash, Thin Out, Thin, Detract, Take Away, Deflate, Inflate, Downsize, Subtract, Knock Off, Shave
Related verbs: Cut
Generic synonyms: Decrease, Lessen, Minify
Derivative terms: Cutback, Reduction, Reductive, Trim

2. Verb. Make less complex. "Reduce a problem to a single question"
Specialized synonyms: Abbreviate
Generic synonyms: Simplify
Derivative terms: Reducible, Reduction

3. Verb. Bring to humbler or weaker state or condition. "He reduced the population to slavery"
Generic synonyms: Break, Bump, Demote, Kick Downstairs, Relegate

4. Verb. Simplify the form of a mathematical equation of expression by substituting one term for another.
Category relationships: Math, Mathematics, Maths
Generic synonyms: Exchange, Interchange, Replace, Substitute
Derivative terms: Reducible

5. Verb. Lower in grade or rank or force somebody into an undignified situation. "She reduced her niece to a servant"
Generic synonyms: Degrade, Demean, Disgrace, Put Down, Take Down

6. Verb. Be the essential element. "The proposal boils down to a compromise"
Exact synonyms: Boil Down, Come Down
Generic synonyms: Become, Turn
Derivative terms: Reducible

7. Verb. Reduce in size; reduce physically. "Can you shrink this image?"
Exact synonyms: Shrink
Specialized synonyms: Scale Down, Reef, Miniaturise, Miniaturize, Depopulate, Desolate, Downsize, Contract
Causes: Contract, Shrink
Generic synonyms: Decrease, Lessen, Minify
Derivative terms: Reduction, Shrinkage, Shrinking

8. Verb. Lessen and make more modest. "Reduce one's standard of living"
Generic synonyms: Impoverish

9. Verb. Make smaller. "Reduce an image"
Exact synonyms: Scale Down
Generic synonyms: Shrink
Antonyms: Blow Up
Derivative terms: Reducible, Reduction

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.
Exact synonyms: Deoxidise, Deoxidize
Category relationships: Chemical Science, Chemistry
Generic synonyms: Change
Specialized synonyms: Benficiate, Pole
Antonyms: Oxidise, Oxidize
Derivative terms: Reducer, Reducing, Reductant

11. Verb. Narrow or limit. "Reduce the influx of foreigners"
Exact synonyms: Tighten
Generic synonyms: Bound, Confine, Limit, Restrain, Restrict, Throttle, Trammel

12. Verb. Put down by force or intimidation. "The rich landowners subjugated the peasants working the land"
Exact synonyms: Keep Down, Quash, Repress, Subdue, Subjugate
Generic synonyms: Crush, Oppress, Suppress
Derivative terms: Repression, Repression, Repressive, Subduer

13. Verb. Undergo meiosis. "The cells reduce"
Generic synonyms: Divide, Part, Separate

14. Verb. Reposition (a broken bone after surgery) back to its normal site.
Generic synonyms: Reposition

15. Verb. Destress and thus weaken a sound when pronouncing it.
Category relationships: Linguistics
Generic synonyms: De-emphasise, De-emphasize, Destress
Specialized synonyms: Obscure

16. Verb. Reduce in scope while retaining essential elements. "They won't reduce the story "; "The manuscript must be shortened"
Exact synonyms: Abbreviate, Abridge, Contract, Cut, Foreshorten, Shorten
Specialized synonyms: Bowdlerise, Bowdlerize, Castrate, Expurgate, Shorten, Concentrate, Condense, Digest
Related verbs: Cut, Edit, Edit Out
Generic synonyms: Decrease, Lessen, Minify
Derivative terms: Abbreviator, Abridgement, Abridger, Contraction, Shortener
Antonyms: Expand

17. Verb. Be cooked until very little liquid is left. "The sauce should reduce to one cup"
Exact synonyms: Boil Down, Concentrate, Decoct
Category relationships: Cookery, Cooking, Preparation
Generic synonyms: Decrease, Diminish, Fall, Lessen
Derivative terms: Concentrate, Concentration, Concentration

18. Verb. Cook until very little liquid is left. "The cook reduced the sauce by boiling it for a long time"
Exact synonyms: Boil Down, Concentrate
Category relationships: Cookery, Cooking, Preparation
Generic synonyms: Decrease, Lessen, Minify
Derivative terms: Concentrate, Concentration, Concentration

19. Verb. Lessen the strength or flavor of a solution or mixture. "Cut bourbon"
Exact synonyms: Cut, Dilute, Thin, Thin Out
Generic synonyms: Weaken
Specialized synonyms: Water Down
Derivative terms: Cutting, Dilutant, Dilution, Dilution, Thinner, Thinning

20. Verb. Take off weight.
Exact synonyms: Lose Weight, Melt Off, Slenderize, Slim, Slim Down, Thin
Specialized synonyms: Sweat Off
Generic synonyms: Change State, Turn
Antonyms: Gain
Derivative terms: Reducing

Definition of Reduce

1. v. t. To bring or lead back to any former place or condition.

Definition of Reduce

1. Verb. (transitive) To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower, to impair. ¹

2. Verb. (intransitive) To lose weight. ¹

3. Verb. (transitive) To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote. ¹

4. Verb. (transitive) To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture. ¹

5. Verb. (transitive) To bring to an inferior state or condition. ¹

6. Verb. (transitive cooking) To decrease the liquid content of food by boiling much of its water off. ¹

7. Verb. (transitive chemistry) To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen. ¹

8. Verb. (transitive metallurgy) To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter. ¹

9. Verb. (transitive mathematics) To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value. ¹

10. Verb. (transitive legal) To convert to written form (Usage note: this verb almost always take the phrase "to writing"). ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Reduce

1. to diminish [v -DUCED, -DUCING, -DUCES] - See also: diminish

Medical Definition of Reduce

1. 1. To bring or lead back to any former place or condition. "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." "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. 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. 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. 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. 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, 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, to reform the line or column from the square. Synonym: To diminish, lessen, decrease, abate, shorten, curtail, impair, lower, subject, subdue, subjugate, conquer. Origin: L. Reducere, reductum; pref. Red-. Re-, re- + ducere to lead. See Duke, and cf. Redoubt. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Reduce

redstreaks
redtail
redtails
redthroat
redthroats
redtop
redtops
redub
redubbed
redubbing
redubs
reduc't
reducant
reducants
reduce (current term)
reduce to rubble
reduced
reduced cat
reduced cats
reduced circumstances
reduced enamel epithelium
reduced eye
reduced glutathione
reduced haematin
reduced haemoglobin
reduced instruction set computer
reduced instruction set computing
reduced interarch distance
reducement

Literary usage of Reduce

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. University Arithmetic: Embracing the Science of Numbers, and General Rules by Charles Davies (1876)
".reduce the following fractions to their lowest terms; 1. ... reduce 21. reduce 22. reduce CASE V. 151. To reduce a compound fraction to a simple fraction. ..."

2. University Arithmetic: Embracing the Science of Numbers, and General Rules by Charles Davies (1868)
"reduce the following fractions to common denominators: 1. ... reduce 6£ of 2, f, 5f, andj. NOTE.—We may often shorten the work of multiplying the numerator ..."

3. The University Arithmetic: Embracing the Science of Numbers, and Their by Charles Davies (1852)
"reduce -fs of a £ to the fraction of a penny. 4. reduce ^ of a day to the ... reduce T^-g of a cwt. to the fraction of a Ib. 15. reduce TT of a week to the ..."

4. University Arithmetic: Embracing the Science of Numbers, and General Rules by Charles Davies (1867)
"reduce £• to a decimal If we place a decimal point after the 5, and then write any number ... reduce f|f to its equivalent decimal. We here use two ciphers, ..."

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