Definitions for the word "reduce" from multiple English dictionaries.
1. n.
To bring or lead back to any former place or condition.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
2. n.
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.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
3. n.
To bring to terms; to humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture; as, to reduce a province or a fort.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
4. n.
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.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
5. n.
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.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
6. n.
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.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
7. n.
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.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
8. n.
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.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
9. n.
To restore to its proper place or condition, as a displaced organ or part; as, to reduce a dislocation, a fracture, or a hernia.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
10. v.
(-cing) 1 make or become smaller or less. 2 (foll. By to) bring by force or necessity (to some undesirable state or action) (reduced them to tears; reduced to begging). 3 convert to another (esp. Simpler) form (reduced it to a powder). 4 convert (a fraction) to the form with the lowest terms. 5 (foll. By to) bring, simplify, or adapt by classification or analysis (the dispute may be reduced to three issues). 6 make lower in status or rank. 7 lower the price of. 8 lessen one''s weight or size. 9 weaken (is in a very reduced state). 10 impoverish. 11 subdue, bring back to obedience. 12 chem. A (cause to) combine with hydrogen. B (cause to) undergo addition of electrons. 13 a (in surgery) restore (a dislocated etc. Part) to its proper position. B remedy (a dislocation etc.) In this way. reducible adj. [latin duco bring]
Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 1884
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