GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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  1.       

    Reduce , v. t. [imp. & p. p. Reduced ,; p. pr. & vb. n. Reducing .] [L. reducere, reductum; pref. red-. re-, re- + ducere to lead. See Duke, and cf. Redoubt, n.]
    1. To bring or lead back to any former place or condition. [Obs.]
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      And to his brother's house reduced his wife.
      Chapman.

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      The sheep must of necessity be scattered, unless the great Shephered of souls oppose, or some of his delegates reduce and direct us.
      Evelyn.

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    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.

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      Nothing so excellent but a man may fasten upon something belonging to it, to reduce it.
      Tillotson.

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      Having reduced
      Their foe to misery beneath their fears.
      Milton.

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

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    3. To bring to terms; to humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture; as, to reduce a province or a fort.
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    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.
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      It were but right
      And equal to reduce me to my dust.
      Milton.

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    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.
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    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.
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    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.
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      +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.
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      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.
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      Syn. -- To diminish; lessen; decrease; abate; shorten; curtail; impair; lower; subject; subdue; subjugate; conquer.
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