Meaning & Definition of Reduce in English

1. Cut down on

• Make a reduction in

• "Reduce your daily fat intake"

• "The employer wants to cut back health benefits"

2. Make less complex

• "Reduce a problem to a single question"

3. Bring to humbler or weaker state or condition

• "He reduced the population to slavery"

4. Simplify the form of a mathematical equation of expression by substituting one term for another

5. Lower in grade or rank or force somebody into an undignified situation

• "She reduced her niece to a servant"

6. Be the essential element

• "The proposal boils down to a compromise"

7. Reduce in size

• Reduce physically

• "Hot water will shrink the sweater"

• "Can you shrink this image?"

8. Lessen and make more modest

• "Reduce one's standard of living"

9. Make smaller

• "Reduce an image"

10. To remove oxygen from a compound, or cause to react with hydrogen or form a hydride, or to undergo an increase in the number of electrons

11. Narrow or limit

• "Reduce the influx of foreigners"

12. Put down by force or intimidation

• "The government quashes any attempt of an uprising"

• "China keeps down her dissidents very efficiently"

• "The rich landowners subjugated the peasants working the land"

13. Undergo meiosis

• "The cells reduce"

14. Reposition (a broken bone after surgery) back to its normal site

15. Destress and thus weaken a sound when pronouncing it

16. Reduce in scope while retaining essential elements

• "The manuscript must be shortened"

17. Be cooked until very little liquid is left

• "The sauce should reduce to one cup"

18. Cook until very little liquid is left

• "The cook reduced the sauce by boiling it for a long time"

19. Lessen the strength or flavor of a solution or mixture

• "Cut bourbon"

20. Take off weight