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Webster 1913 Edition

Reduce

Re-duce′

(rē̍-dūs′)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Reduced
(-dūst′)
,;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Reducing
(-dū′sĭng)
.]
[L.
reducere
,
reductum
; pref.
red-
.
re-
, re- +
ducere
to lead. See
Duke
, and cf.
Redoubt
,
Noun.
]
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.
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.

Webster 1828 Edition

Reduce

REDU'CE

,
Verb.
T.
[L. reduco; re and duco, to lead or bring.]
1.
Literally, to bring back; as, to reduce these bloody days again.
[In this sense, not in use.]
2.
To bring to a former state.
It were but just and equal to reduce me to my dust.
3.
To bring to any state or condition, good or bad; as, to reduce civil or ecclesiastical affairs to order; to reduce a man to poverty; to reduce a state to distress; to reduce a substance to powder; to reduce a sum to fractions; to reduce on to despair.
4.
To diminish in length, breadth, thickness, size, quantity or value; as, to reduce expenses; to reduce the quantity of any thing; to reduce the intensity of heat; to reduce the brightness of color light; to reduce a sum or amount; to reduce the price of goods.
5.
To lower; to degrade; to impair in dignity or excellence.
Nothing so excellent but a man may fasten on something belonging to it, to reduce it.
6.
To subdue; to bring into subjection. The Romans reduced Spain, Gaul and Britain by their arms.
7.
To reclaim to order.
8.
To bring, as into a class, order, genus or species; to bring under rules or within certain limits of description; as, to reduce animals or vegetables to a class or classes; to reduce men to tribes; to reduce language to rules.
9.
In arithmetic, to change numbers from one denomination into another without altering their value; or to change numbers of one denomination into others of the same value; as, to reduce a dollar to a hundred cents, or a hundred cents to a dollar.
10.
In algebra, to reduce equations, is to clear them of all superfluous quantities, bring them to their lowest terms, and separate the known from the unknown, till at length the unknown quantity only is found on one side and the known ones on the other.
11.
In metallurgy, to bring back metallic substances which have been divested of their form, into their original state of metals.
12.
In surgery, to restore to its proper place or state a dislocated or fractured bone.
To reduce a figure, design or draught, to make a copy of it larger or smaller than the original, but preserving the form and proportion.

Definition 2024

reduce

reduce

English

Verb

reduce ‎(third-person singular simple present reduces, present participle reducing, simple past and past participle reduced)

  1. (transitive) To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower, to impair.
    • to reduce weight, speed, heat, expenses, price, personnel etc.
    • 2012 January 1, Stephen Ledoux, “Behaviorism at 100”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 60:
      Becoming more aware of the progress that scientists have made on behavioral fronts can reduce the risk that other natural scientists will resort to mystical agential accounts when they exceed the limits of their own disciplinary training.
  2. (intransitive) To lose weight.
  3. (transitive) To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.
    • to reduce a sergeant to the ranks
    • An ancient but reduced family. --Sir Walter Scott.
    • Nothing so excellent but a man may fasten upon something belonging to it, to reduce it. --John Tillotson.
    • Having reduced their foe to misery beneath their fears. -- John Milton.
    • Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced. --Nathaniel Hawthorne.
    • 1992, Rudolf M. Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, page viii
      Neither [Jones] […] nor I (in 1966) could conceive of reducing our "science" to the ultimate absurdity of reading Finnish newspapers almost a century and a half old in order to establish "priority."
  4. (transitive) To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture.
    • to reduce a province or a fort
  5. (transitive) To bring to an inferior state or condition.
    • to reduce a city to ashes
  6. (transitive, cooking) To decrease the liquid content of food by boiling much of its water off.
  7. (transitive, chemistry) To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.
  8. (transitive, metallurgy) To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter.
  9. (transitive, mathematics) To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value.
  10. (transitive, logic) To convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form
  11. (transitive, law) To convert to written form (Usage note: this verb almost always take the phrase "to writing").
    • It is important that all business contracts be reduced to writing.
  12. (transitive, medicine) To perform a reduction; to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment.
  13. (transitive, military) To reform a line or column from (a square).
  14. (transitive, obsolete) To translate (a book, document, etc.).
    a book reduced into English

Related terms

Synonyms

Antonyms

Translations

See also

References

  • reduce in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Italian

Adjective

reduce m, f ‎(masculine and feminine plural reduci) (da)

  1. returning (from)

Noun

reduce m ‎(plural reduci)

  1. survivor
  2. veteran (of a conflict)

Anagrams

Latin

Pronunciation 1

Verb

redūce

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of redūcō

Pronunciation 2

Adjective

rē̆duce

  1. ablative masculine singular of rē̆dux
  2. ablative feminine singular of rē̆dux
  3. ablative neuter singular of rē̆dux

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin reducere, French réduire, based on duce. Compare the inherited doublet arăduce.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /reˈdutʃe/, [re̞ˈd̪utʃe̞]

Verb

a reduce ‎(third-person singular present reduce, past participle redus) 3rd conj.

  1. (transitive) to reduce, to lessen

Conjugation

Derived terms

Related terms

See also

Spanish

Verb

reduce

  1. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of reducir.
  2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of reducir.
  3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present indicative form of reducir.

Etymology

Borrowing from Old French reducer, from Latin redūcere, present active infinitive of redūcō ‎(“reduce”); from re- ‎(“back”), + dūcō ‎(“lead”). See duke, and compare with redoubt.

Pronunciation

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