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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Reduce \Re*duce"\ (r[-e]*d[=u]s"), verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Reduced} (-d[=u]st"),; p. pr. & vb. n. {Reducing} (-d[=u]"s[i^]ng).] [L. reducere, reductum; pref. red-. re-, re- + ducere to lead. See {Duke}, and cf. {Redoubt}, noun]
1. To bring or lead back to any former place or condition. [Obs.]
And to his brother's house reduced his wife. --Chapman.
The sheep must of necessity be scattered, unless the great Shephered of souls oppose, or some of his delegates reduce and direct us. --Evelyn.
2. 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. ''An ancient but reduced family.'' --Sir W. Scott.
Nothing so excellent but a man may fasten upon something belonging to it, to reduce it. --Tillotson.
Having reduced Their foe to misery beneath their fears. --Milton.
Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced. --Hawthorne.
3. To bring to terms; to humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture; as, to reduce a province or a fort.
4. 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.
It were but right And equal to reduce me to my dust. --Milton.
5. 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.
6. (Arith.) (a) 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. (b) 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.
7. (Chem.) To add an electron to an atom or ion. Specifically: To remove oxygen from; to deoxidize. (Metallurgy) To bring to the metallic state by separating from combined oxygen and impurities; as, metals are reduced from their ores. (Chem.) To combine with, or to subject to the action of, hydrogen or any other reducing agent; as, ferric iron is reduced to ferrous iron; aldehydes can be reduced to alcohols by lithium hydride; -- opposed to {oxidize}. [1913 Webster +PJC]
8. (Med.) To restore to its proper place or condition, as a displaced organ or part; as, to reduce a dislocation, a fracture, or a hernia.
{Reduced iron} (Chem.), metallic iron obtained through deoxidation of an oxide of iron by exposure to a current of hydrogen or other reducing agent. When hydrogen is used the product is called also {iron by hydrogen}.
{To reduce an equation} (Alg.), to bring the unknown quantity by itself on one side, and all the known quantities on the other side, without destroying the equation.
{To reduce an expression} (Alg.), to obtain an equivalent expression of simpler form.
{To reduce a square} (Mil.), to reform the line or column from the square.
Syn: To diminish; lessen; decrease; abate; shorten; curtail; impair; lower; subject; subdue; subjugate; conquer.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Reducing \Re*du"cing\ (r?*d?"s?ng), a & n. from {Reduce}.
{Reducing furnace} (Metal.), a furnace for reducing ores.
{Reducing pipe fitting}, a pipe fitting, as a coupling, an elbow, a tee, etc., for connecting a large pipe with a smaller one.
{Reducing valve}, a device for automatically maintaining a diminished pressure of steam, air, gas, etc., in a pipe, or other receiver, which is fed from a boiler or pipe in which the pressure is higher than is desired in the receiver.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
reducing
noun
1: any process in which electrons are added to an atom or ion (as by removing oxygen or adding hydrogen); always occurs accompanied by oxidation of the reducing agent [syn: {reduction}]
2: loss of excess weight (as by dieting); becoming slimmer; "a doctor supervised her reducing"
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
23 Moby Thesaurus words for "reducing": abating, allaying, alleviating, assuaging, blunting, calorie-counting, chastening, cushioning, dampening, damping, deadening, diminishing, dulling, easing, lessening, mitigating, relaxing, slenderizing, slimming, softening, subduing, tempering, weight-watching
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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |