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