(n.) To bring or lead back to any former place or condition.
(n.) 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.
(n.) To bring to terms; to humble; to conquer; to subdue; to
capture; as, to reduce a province or a fort.
(n.) 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.
(n.) 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.
(n.) 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.
(n.) 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.
(n.) 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.
(n.) To restore to its proper place or condition, as a displaced
organ or part; as, to reduce a dislocation, a fracture, or a hernia.
