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.
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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.
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Nothing so excellent but a man may fasten upon
something belonging to it, to reduce it.
--Tillotson.
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Having reduced
Their foe to misery beneath their fears. --Milton.
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Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which
she found the clergyman reduced. --Hawthorne.
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3. To bring to terms; to humble; to conquer; to subdue; to
capture; as, to reduce a province or a fort.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
reduce
v 1: cut down on; make a reduction in; "reduce your daily fat
intake"; "The employer wants to cut back health
benefits" [syn: cut down, cut back, trim, trim
down, trim back, cut, bring down]
2: make less complex; "reduce a problem to a single question"
3: bring to humbler or weaker state or condition; "He reduced
the population to slavery"
4: simplify the form of a mathematical equation of expression
by substituting one term for another
5: lower in grade or rank or force somebody into an undignified
situation; "She reduced her niece to a servant"
6: be the essential element; "The proposal boils down to a
compromise" [syn: come down, boil down]
7: reduce in size; reduce physically; "Hot water will shrink
the sweater"; "Can you shrink this image?" [syn: shrink]
8: lessen and make more modest; "reduce one's standard of
living"
9: make smaller; "reduce an image" [syn: scale down] [ant: blow
up]
10: 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]
[ant: oxidize, oxidize]
11: narrow or limit; "reduce the influx of foreigners" [syn: tighten]
12: 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]
13: undergo meiosis; "The cells reduce"
14: reposition (a broken bone after surgery) back to its normal
site
15: reduce in scope while retaining essential elements; "The
manuscript must be shortened" [syn: abridge, foreshorten,
abbreviate, shorten, cut, contract] [ant: elaborate]
16: be cooked until very little liquid is left; "The sauce
should reduce to one cup" [syn: boil down, decoct, concentrate]
17: cook until very little liquid is left; "The cook reduced the
sauce by boiling it for a long time" [syn: boil down, concentrate]
18: lessen the strength or flavor of a solution or mixture; "cut
bourbon" [syn: dilute, thin, thin out, cut]
19: take off weight [syn: melt off, lose weight, slim, slenderize,
thin, slim down] [ant: gain]
WordNet (r) 2.0
404 Moby Thesaurus words for "reduce":
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abrade, abridge, abstract,
acetify, acidify, acidulate, adjust, adjust to, adulterate,
afflict, alkalify, alkalize, allay, alleviate, allow, alter,
analyze, anatomize, anesthetize, appease, apportion, assay,
assimilate to, assuage, attemper, attenuate, bank the fire,
bankrupt, baptize, bate, bear down, beat down, become, beggar,
belittle, bend, benumb, blunt, bob, boil down, borate, box in,
break, break down, break up, bring down, bring low, bring to,
bring to terms, bump, bust, capsulize, carbonate, catalyze, change,
change into, change over, charge off, chasten, cheapen, chemical,
chlorinate, circumscribe, clip, coarct, compact, compress,
concentrate, condense, condition, conquer, consolidate, constrain,
constrict, constringe, contract, control, convert, couch, count,
count calories, cramp, cripple, crop, crush, curtail, cushion, cut,
cut back, cut down, cut off short, cut prices, cut short, damp,
dampen, de-emphasize, deaden, deaden the pain, debase, debilitate,
decline, decrease, deduct, deflate, degrade, demean, demote,
deplume, depreciate, depress, derange, derogate, detract, detrude,
devaluate, devitalize, diet, dilute, diminish, disable, discount,
disgrade, disorder, disparage, displume, dissect, distill, dive,
divide, do over, dock, downbear, downgrade, downplay, drain, draw,
draw in, draw together, drop, dull, dump, dump on, ease,
ease matters, eat away, electrolyze, elide, enervate, enfeeble,
epitomize, erode, eviscerate, exhaust, extenuate, extract, fall,
fall in price, fell, ferment, file away, fix, flatten, foment,
foreshorten, give relief, give way, grind, gruel, haul down, hedge,
hedge about, homopolymerize, hospitalize, humble, humiliate,
hydrate, hydrogenate, hydroxylate, impair, impoverish, increase,
indent, indispose, invalid, irrigate, isomerize, jew down,
keep within bounds, kick back, knit, knock down, lay, lay low,
lay up, leach, leaven, lenify, lessen, let down, let up on,
lighten, limit, lose flesh, lose weight, lower, lull, make,
make allowance, make over, mark down, master, measure, minimize,
mitigate, moderate, modify, modulate, mollify, mow, narrow,
naturalize, nip, nitrate, nose-dive, numb, number, obtund,
overmaster, override, oversimplify, overwhelm, oxidize, pad,
palliate, parcel, pare, pauperize, pepsinate, peroxidize,
phosphatize, play down, plummet, plunge, poll, pollard, polymerize,
poultice, pour balm into, pour oil on, powder, press down,
prostrate, prune, pucker, pucker up, pull down, pulp, purify,
purse, push down, put down, qualify, quantify, quantize, quell,
rarefy, rate, rattle, reap, rebate, recap, recapitulate, reconvert,
reduce the temperature, reduce to, reduce to elements,
reduce weight, refine, refund, regulate by, relieve, remove,
render, reset, resolve, resolve into, restrain, restrict, retrench,
reverse, ride down, roll back, rub, rub away, sag, salve, sap,
scale down, season, segment, separate, set, set conditions,
set down, set limits, shake, shake up, shave, shear, shift,
shorten, sicken, simplify, sink, slacken, slake, slash, slenderize,
slim, slim down, slow down, slump, smash, smother, snub, sober,
sober down, soften, soften up, solidify, soothe, step down, stifle,
strangle, strangulate, streamline, strip down, strip of rank,
stunt, stupe, subdivide, subduct, subdue, subjugate, subtract,
sulfate, sulfatize, sulfonate, sum up, summarize, suppress, switch,
switch over, synopsize, take a premium, take away, take down,
take from, take in, take off, take off weight, tame, telescope,
temper, thin, thin down, thin out, thrust down, tone down,
trample down, trample underfoot, transform, tread underfoot, trim,
trip up, triturate, truncate, tune down, turn, turn back,
turn into, tyrannize, unbrace, undermine, underplay, unman,
unnerve, unstrengthen, unstring, vanquish, water, water down,
weaken, wear away, weed, weight-watch, withdraw, work, wrinkle,
write off
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
REDUCE
A symbolic mathematics language with
ALGOL-like syntax, written in Lisp by Anthony Hearn in
1963.
Reduce 2 is a version based on Portable Standard LISP.
Home (http://www.rrz.uni-koeln.de/REDUCE/).
E-mail: .
Server: reduce-netlib@rand.org.
["REDUCE, Software for Algebraic Computation", G. Rayna,
Springer 1987].
(1994-10-31)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)
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