REDUCE

noun to bring or lead back to any former place or condition.

2. reduce ·noun to restore to its proper place or condition, as a displaced organ or part; as, to reduce a dislocation, a fracture, or a hernia.

3. reduce ·noun 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.

4. reduce ·noun to bring to terms; to humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture; as, to reduce a province or a fort.

5. reduce ·noun 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.

6. reduce ·noun 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.

7. reduce ·noun to bring to the metallic state by separating from impurities; hence, in general, to remove oxygen from; to deoxidize; to combine with, or to subject to the action of, hydrogen; as, ferric iron is reduced to ferrous iron; or metals are reduced from their ores;

— opposed to oxidize.

8. reduce ·noun 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.

9. reduce ·noun 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.