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- Dictionaryreduce/rɪˈdjuːs/
verb
- 1. make smaller or less in amount, degree, or size: "the need for businesses to reduce costs" Similar lessenmake lessmake smallerlowerbring downdecreaseturn downdiminishtake the edge offminimizeshrinknarrowcontractshortenforeshortentruncatetapercloseabbreviatecondenseconcentrateabridgedepleteaxecutcut back/downmake cutbacks inscale downtrimslim (down)prunechopcurtaillimitmoderatelighteneasedilutemitigatecommutequalifyalleviaterelaxabateamortizemake cheaperlower the price oflower/cut in pricecheapencutmark downdiscountput on saleoffer at a giveaway priceinformal:slashknock downOpposite increaseenlargeput up
- ▪ become smaller or less in size, amount, or degree: "the number of priority homeless cases has reduced slightly"
- ▪ boil (a sauce or other liquid) in cooking so that it becomes thicker and more concentrated: "increase the heat and reduce the liquid"
- ▪ (of a person) lose weight, typically by dieting: North American "by May she had reduced to 9 stone"
- ▪ make (a negative or print) less dense.
- ▪ articulate (a speech sound) in a way requiring less muscular effort, giving rise in vowels to a more central articulatory position.
- 2. bring someone or something to (a worse or less desirable state or condition): "she has been reduced to near poverty" Similar bring tobring to the point offorce intodrive into
- ▪ be forced by difficult circumstances into doing something desperate: "ordinary soldiers are reduced to begging"
- ▪ make someone helpless with (shock, anguish, or amusement): "Olga was reduced to stunned silence"
- ▪ force someone into (obedience or submission): "he reduced his grandees to due obedience" Similar bring tobring to the point offorce intodrive into
- 3. change a substance to (a different or more basic form): "it is difficult to understand how lava could have been reduced to dust"
- ▪ present a problem or subject in (a simplified form): "he reduces unimaginable statistics to manageable proportions"
- ▪ convert a fraction to (the form with the lowest terms).
- 4. cause to combine chemically with hydrogen: "hydrogen for reducing the carbon dioxide"
- ▪ undergo or cause to undergo a reaction in which electrons are gained from another substance or molecule: "this compound reduces to potassium chloride"
- 5. restore (a dislocated part of the body) to its proper position by manipulation or surgery: "Joe's reducing a dislocated thumb"
- 6. besiege and capture (a town or fortress). archaic
Word Origin late Middle English: from Latin reducere, from re- ‘back, again’ + ducere ‘bring, lead’. The original sense was ‘bring back’ (hence ‘restore’, now surviving in reduce (sense 5)); this led to ‘bring to a different state’, then ‘bring to a simpler or lower state’ (hence reduce (sense 3)); and finally ‘diminish in size or amount’ (reduce (sense 1), dating from the late 18th century).
Derivatives
- 1. reducer noun
Scrabble Points: 9
R
1E
1D
2U
1C
3E
1
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