reduce

Etymology

From Old French reducer, from Latin redūcere, present active infinitive of redūcō (“reduce”); from re- (“back”), + dūcō (“lead”). See duke, and compare with redoubt.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈdjuːs/, /ɹɪˈdʒuːs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈduːs/

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• 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 impair.

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

   • 2012 January 1, 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.

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

   to reduce a sergeant to the ranks

   • An ancient but reduced family. --Sir Walter Scott.
   • Nothing so excellent but a man may fasten upon something belonging to it, to reduce it. --John Tillotson.
   • Having reduced their foe to misery beneath their fears. -- John Milton.
   • Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced. --Nathaniel Hawthorne.
   • 1992, Rudolf M. Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, 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.
7. (transitive, chemistry) To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.
8. (transitive, metallurgy) To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter.
9. (transitive, mathematics) To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value.
10. (transitive, logic) To convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form
11. (transitive, law) To convert to written form (Usage note: this verb almost always take the phrase "to writing").

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

12. (transitive, medicine) To perform a reduction; to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment.
13. (transitive, military) To reform a line or column from (a square).
14. (transitive, obsolete) To translate (a book, document, etc.).

    a book reduced into English

Etymology

From Latin redux (“that returns”).

Adjective

reduce (masculine and feminine plural reduci) (da)

1. returning (from)

   Synonym: ritornato

Noun

reduce m (plural reduci)

1. survivor

   Synonym: sopravvissuto

2. veteran (of a conflict)

   Synonyms: veterano, ex combattente

Anagrams

• ducere

Etymology 1

Etymology 2

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /reˈdutʃe/, [re̞ˈd̪utʃe̞]

Verb

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

1. (transitive) to reduce, to lessen

Verb

reduce

1. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of reducir.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of reducir.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present indicative form of reducir.