reduce
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɹɪˈd͡ʒuːs/
ipa: /ɹɪˈdjuːs/
ipa: /ɹɪˈd(j)us/
ipa: [ɹɪˈd(j)ʉːs]
ipa: [ɹɪˈdɪu̯s]
rhymes: -uːs
Forms: form: reduces
form: reducing
form: reduced
form: reduced
Etymology: From Middle English reducen, from Old French reduire, from Latin redūcō (“reduce”); from re- (“back”) + dūcō (“lead”). See duke, and compare with redoubt.
Senses: examples: text: to reduce weight, speed, heat, expenses, price, personnel etc.
text: 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.
ref: 2012 January 24, Stephen Ledoux, “Behaviorism at 100”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 10 Nov 2013, page 60:
text: Most train operators have reduced services with emergency timetables, as they struggle to cope with a rapid increase in staff absences due to the Omicron variant of COVID.
ref: 2022 January 12, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Emergency timetables as absences surge due to COVID”, in RAIL, number 948, page 6:
glosses: To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower.
glosses: To lose weight.
examples: text: to reduce a sergeant to the ranks
text: My father, the eldest son of an ancient but reduced family, left me with little.
ref: 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:
text: nothing so excellent but a man may falten upon something or other belonging to it whereby to reduce it .
ref: 1671, John Tillotson, “Sermon II. The Folly of Scoffing at Religion. 2 Pet[er] III. 3.”, in The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, Late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: […], London: […] B. Aylmer, […]; [a]nd W. Rogers, […], published 1696, →OCLC:
text: Having reduced their foe to misery beneath their fears.
ref: 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:
text: Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced.
ref: 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 13, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
text: 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."
ref: 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page viii:
glosses: To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.
examples: text: to reduce a province or a fort
glosses: To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture.
examples: text: to reduce a city to ashes
glosses: To bring to an inferior state or condition.
examples: text: reduced to silence
text: The press release calls him "the hottest female impressionist in show business today." (One wonders how many more words press agents will have to come up with before they are reduced to actually saying "drag queen.")
ref: 1983 December 31, “What a Drag”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 24, page 9:
glosses: To be forced by circumstances (into something one considers unworthy).
examples: text: Serve the oxtails with mustard or a sauce made by reducing the soup, if any is left, to a slightly thick sauce.
ref: 2011, Edward Behr, James MacGuire, The Art of Eating Cookbook: Essential Recipes from the First 25 Years.:
topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
glosses: To decrease the liquid content of (a food) by boiling much of its water off.
examples: text: Formaldehyde can be reduced to form methanol.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.
topics: engineering
metallurgy
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value.
topics: computer
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
science
sciences
glosses: To express the solution of a problem in terms of another (known) algorithm.
topics: human-sciences
logic
mathematics
philosophy
sciences
glosses: To convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form.
examples: text: It is important that all business contracts be reduced to writing.
topics: law
glosses: To convert to written form. (Usage note: this verb almost always appears as "reduce to writing".)
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: To perform a reduction; to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: To reform a line or column from (a square).
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: To strike off the payroll.
qualifier: Scots law
glosses: To annul by legal means.
examples: text: The first vowel of support is reduced to schwa by most English speakers.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
phonetics
phonology
sciences
glosses: To pronounce (a sound or word) with less effort.
examples: text: a book reduced into English
glosses: To translate (a book, document, etc.).
Synonyms: sense: to bring down
word: cut
sense: to bring down
word: decrease
sense: to bring down
word: lower
topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
word: inspissate
word: thicken
Derived terms: beta reduce
reduce someone to tears
reducing agent
reducing flame
reducing scale
reducing sugar
Related terms: reducible
reductase
reduction
reductive
reducing agent