Advertisement
Advertisement
reduce
[ ri-doos, -dyoos ]
verb (used with object)
- to bring down to a smaller extent, size, amount, number, etc.:
to reduce one's weight by 10 pounds.
Synonyms: abate, attenuate, lessen, retrench, contract, curtail, abridge, shorten, decrease, diminish
Antonyms: increase
- to lower in degree, intensity, etc.:
to reduce the speed of a car.
- to bring down to a lower rank, dignity, etc.:
a sergeant reduced to a corporal
- to treat analytically, as a complex idea.
- to lower in price.
- to bring to a certain state, condition, arrangement, etc.:
to reduce glass to powder.
- to bring under control or authority.
Synonyms: overpower, overcome, vanquish, subject, conquer, subjugate, subdue
- Cooking. to evaporate water from (a sauce, soup, or other liquid), usually by boiling.
- Photography. to lessen the density of (an exposed negative).
- to adjust or correct by making allowances, as an astronomical observation.
- Mathematics. to change the denomination or form, but not the value, of (a fraction, polynomial, etc.).
- Chemistry.
- to add electrons to.
- to deoxidize.
- to add hydrogen to.
- to change (a compound) so that the valence of the positive element is lower.
- Chemistry, Metallurgy. to bring into the metallic state by separating from nonmetallic constituents.
- to thin or dilute:
to reduce paint with oil or turpentine.
- to lower the alcoholic concentration of (spirits) by diluting with water.
- Surgery. to restore to the normal place, relation, or condition, as a fractured bone.
- Phonetics. to modify the quality of (a speech sound) to one of lesser distinctiveness, especially to pronounce (an unstressed vowel) as (ə) or another centralized vowel, as in the unstressed syllables of medicinal.
verb (used without object)
- to become reduced.
- to become lessened, especially in weight.
- to be turned into or made to equal something:
All our difficulties reduce to financial problems.
- Cell Biology. to undergo meiosis.
reduce
/ rɪˈdjuːs /
verb
- also intr to make or become smaller in size, number, extent, degree, intensity, etc
- to bring into a certain state, condition, etc
to reduce someone to despair
to reduce a forest to ashes
- also intr to make or become slimmer; lose or cause to lose excess weight
- to impoverish (esp in the phrase in reduced circumstances )
- to bring into a state of submission to one's authority; subjugate
the whole country was reduced after three months
- to bring down the price of (a commodity)
the shirt was reduced in the sale
- to lower the rank or status of; demote
reduced to the ranks
he was reduced from corporal to private
- to set out systematically as an aid to understanding; simplify
his theories have been reduced in a popular treatise
- maths to modify or simplify the form of (an expression or equation), esp by substitution of one term by another
- cookery to make (a sauce, stock, etc) more concentrated by boiling away some of the water in it
- to thin out (paint) by adding oil, turpentine, etc; dilute
- also intr chem
- to undergo or cause to undergo a chemical reaction with hydrogen or formation of a hydride
- to lose or cause to lose oxygen atoms
- to undergo or cause to undergo an increase in the number of electrons Compare oxidize
- photog to lessen the density of (a negative or print) by converting some of the blackened silver in the emulsion to soluble silver compounds by an oxidation process using a photographic reducer
- surgery to manipulate or reposition (a broken or displaced bone, organ, or part) back to its normal site
- also intr biology to undergo or cause to undergo meiosis
Derived Forms
- reˌduciˈbility, noun
- reˈducible, adjective
- reˈducibly, adverb
Other Word Forms
- anti·re·ducing adjective noun
- nonre·ducing adjective
- over·re·duce verb overreduced overreducing
Word History and Origins
Word History and Origins
Origin of reduce1
Example Sentences
Their stridently held belief that tax cuts produce more revenue, a notion dating from the late 1970s, should have been a tipoff: By that reasoning, reducing taxes to zero should produce infinite revenue.
Spousal benefits are reduced if you start before your own full retirement age, which is presumably 67, but won’t be increased if you wait beyond that age.
“The process that we’re currently utilizing for debris removal, soil testing, environmental mitigation, as well as the reconstruction process — we are literally reducing the timeline of rebuilding by as much as 50%,” he said.
The administration is similarly cutting funding for the Department of Energy and other agency programs working to reduce the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels, including rumored cuts to a major nationwide initiative to develop hydrogen.
David Swartz, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, agrees that price rises are likely but says any large price increase would reduce demand.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Browse