1. Any process in which electrons are added to an atom or ion (as by removing oxygen or adding hydrogen); always occurs accompanied by oxidation of the reducing agent
   "The reducing of iron oxide to pure iron is an important industrial process";
   - reduction

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
   "The tumour reduced after treatment";
   - shrink
    
5. Make smaller
   "reduce an image";
   - scale down
    
6. Reduce in scope while retaining essential elements
   "The manuscript must be reduced";
   - abridge, foreshorten, abbreviate, shorten, cut, contract
    
7. Lessen and make more modest
   "reduce one's standard of living"
    
8. Bring to humbler or weaker state or condition
   "He reduced the population to slavery"
    
9. Lower in grade, rank or force somebody into an undignified situation
   "She reduced her niece to a servant"
    
10. Put down by force or intimidation
    "The police reduced the violent protest";
    - repress, quash, keep down, subdue, subjugate
     
11. Be the essential element
    "The proposal reduces to a compromise";
    - come down, boil down
     
12. 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
    "The chemical process reduced the metal oxide";
    - deoxidize, deoxidise [Brit]
     
13. (mathematics) simplify the form of a mathematical equation of expression by substituting one term for another
    "The student reduced the fraction to its lowest terms"; "He reduced the complex equation to a simpler form"
     
14. (cooking) cook until very little liquid is left
    "The cook reduced the sauce by boiling it for a long time";
    - boil down, concentrate
     
15. Undergo meiosis
    "The cells reduce"
     
16. Reposition (a broken bone after surgery) back to its normal site
    "The orthopaedic surgeon reduced the fractured femur"
     
17. (linguistics) destress and thus weaken a sound when pronouncing it
    "In rapid speech, speakers often reduce function words"

Derived forms: reducings

See also: bring

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

Antonym: blow up

Encyclopedia: Reducing