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1. Make a reduction in, cut down on
   "reduce your daily fat intake";
   - cut down, cut back, trim, trim down, trim back, cut, bring down
    
2. Make less complex
   "reduce a problem to a single question"
    
3. Narrow or limit
   "reduce the influx of foreigners";
   - tighten
    
4. Reduce in size; reduce physically
   - shrink
    
5. Make smaller
   "reduce an image";
   - scale down
    
6. Bring to humbler or weaker state or condition
   "He reduced the population to slavery"
    
7. Lower in grade, rank or force somebody into an undignified situation
   "She reduced her niece to a servant"
    
8. Be the essential element
   "The proposal reduces to a compromise";
   - come down, boil down
    
9. Lessen and make more modest
   "reduce one's standard of living"
    
10. Put down by force or intimidation
    "The government reduces any attempt of an uprising";
    - repress, quash, keep down, subdue, subjugate
     
11. Reduce in scope while retaining essential elements
    "The manuscript must be reduced";
    - abridge, foreshorten, abbreviate, shorten, cut, contract
     
12. Lessen the strength or flavour of a solution or mixture
    - dilute, thin, thin out, cut
     
13. Take off weight
    - melt off, slim, slenderize, thin, slim down, slenderise [Brit], lose weight
     
14. (chemistry) 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
    - deoxidize, deoxidise [Brit]
     
15. (mathematics) simplify the form of a mathematical equation of expression by substituting one term for another
     
16. (cooking) be cooked until very little liquid is left
    "The sauce should reduce to one cup";
    - boil down, decoct [archaic], concentrate
     
17. (cooking) cook until very little liquid is left
    "The cook reduced the sauce by boiling it for a long time";
    - boil down, concentrate
     
18. Undergo meiosis
    "The cells reduce"
     
19. Reposition (a broken bone after surgery) back to its normal site
     
20. (linguistics) destress and thus weaken a sound when pronouncing it

Derived forms: reduced, reduces, reducing

Type of: become, bound, break, bump, change, change state, confine, crush, decrease, de-emphasise [Brit], de-emphasize, degrade, demean, demote, destress, diminish, disgrace, divide, exchange, fall, impoverish, interchange, kick downstairs, lessen, limit, minify, oppress, part, put down, relegate, replace, reposition, restrict, separate, simplify, sub [informal], substitute, suppress, take down, throttle, trammel, turn, weaken

Antonym: enlarge, oxidate, put on

Encyclopedia: Reduce, reuse, recycle