meaning of reduce
1. To bring or lead back to any former place or condition.
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.
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.
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.
7. 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. 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.
9. To restore to its proper place or condition, as a displaced organ or part; as, to reduce a dislocation, a fracture, or a hernia.
10. take off weight
Related Words
reduce | reduced | reduced instruction set computer | reduced instruction set computing | reducement | reducent | reducer |
