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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Reduce \Re*duce"\ (r[-e]*d[=u]s"), v. t. [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}, 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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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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