reduce

English

Etymology

From Middle English reducen, from Old French reduire, from Latin redūcō (“reduce”); from re- (“back”) + dūcō (“lead”). See duke, and compare with redoubt.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈdjuːs/, /ɹɪˈd͡ʒuːs/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈd(j)us/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːs

Verb

reduce (third-person singular simple present reduces, present participle reducing, simple past and past participle reduced)

1. (transitive) To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower.

   to reduce weight, speed, heat, expenses, price, personnel etc.

   • 2012 January, Stephen Ledoux, “Behaviorism at 100”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 1, page 60:

     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.

   • 2022 January 12, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Emergency timetables as absences surge due to COVID”, in RAIL, number 948, page 6:

     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.

2. (intransitive) To lose weight.
3. (transitive) To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.

   to reduce a sergeant to the ranks

   • 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, ; and Archibald Constable and Co., , →OCLC:

     My father, the eldest son of an ancient but reduced family, left me with little.

   • 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: , 8th edition, London: T. Goodwin, B Tooke, and J. Pemberton, ; J. Round , and J Tonson] , published 1720, →OCLC:

     nothing so excellent but a man may falten upon something or other belonging to it whereby to reduce it .

   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, ”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: J. M for John Starkey , →OCLC:

     Having reduced their foe to misery beneath their fears.

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 13, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:

     Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced.

   • 1992, Rudolf M Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page viii:

     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."

4. (transitive) To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture.

   to reduce a province or a fort

5. (transitive) To bring to an inferior state or condition.

   to reduce a city to ashes

6. (transitive, cooking) To decrease the liquid content of food by boiling much of its water off.
   • 2011, Edward Behr, James MacGuire, The Art of Eating Cookbook: Essential Recipes from the First 25 Years.:

     Serve the oxtails with mustard or a sauce made by reducing the soup, if any is left, to a slightly thick sauce.

8. (transitive, chemistry) To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.

   Formaldehyde can be reduced to form methanol.

9. (transitive, metallurgy) To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter.
10. (transitive, mathematics) To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value.
11. (transitive, computer science) To express the solution of a problem in terms of another (known) algorithm.
12. (transitive, logic) To convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form.
13. (transitive, law) To convert to written form. (Usage note: this verb almost always appears as "reduce to writing".)

    It is important that all business contracts be reduced to writing.

14. (transitive, medicine) To perform a reduction; to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment.
15. (transitive, military) To reform a line or column from (a square).
16. (transitive, military) To strike off the payroll.
17. (transitive, Scots law) To annul by legal means.
18. (transitive, obsolete) To translate (a book, document, etc.).

    a book reduced into English

Synonyms

• (to bring down): cut, decrease, lower
• (cooking): inspissate; see also Thesaurus:thicken

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "to bring down"): increase

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• reducing agent

References

• “reduce”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Galician

Verb

reduce

1. inflection of reducir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Italian

Etymology

From Latin redux (“that returns”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈrɛ.du.t͡ʃe/
• Rhymes: -ɛdutʃe
• Hyphenation: rè‧du‧ce

Adjective

reduce (plural reduci)

1. returning (from)

   Synonym: ritornato

Noun

reduce m or f by sense (plural reduci)

1. survivor

   Synonym: sopravvissuto

2. veteran (of a conflict)

   Synonyms: veterano, ex combattente

Anagrams

• cudere, ducere

Latin

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /reˈduː.ke/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /reˈdu.t͡ʃe/,

Verb

redūce

1. second-person singular present active imperative of redūcō

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈre.du.ke/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈre.du.t͡ʃe/,
• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈre.du.ke/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈre.du.t͡ʃe/,

Adjective

rĕduce

1. ablative masculine/feminine/neuter singular of rē̆dux

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin reducere, French réduire, based on duce. Compare the inherited doublet arăduce.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /reˈdutʃe/,

Verb

a reduce (third-person singular present reduce, past participle redus) 3rd conj.

1. (transitive) to reduce, to lessen

Conjugation

Derived terms

Related terms

• duce

See also

• arăduce

Spanish

Verb

reduce

1. inflection of reducir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative