To lead forth or away; deduce; conduct.
To trace out; set forth.
To bring down; reduce.
To take away, separate, or remove in numbering, estimating, or calculating; subtract, as a counterbalancing item or particular: as, to deduct losses from the total receipts; from the amount of profits deduct the freight-charges.
Synonyms Deduct, Subtract. These words cannot properly be used interchangeably. Deduct is to lead away, set aside, in a general or distributive sense; subtract, to draw off, remove, in a literal or collective sense. In settling a mercantile account, certain items, as charges, losses, etc., are deducted by being added together and their total subtracted from the grand total of the transaction. From a parcel of goods of known value or number articles are subtracted or literally taken away as required; the value or number of the remainder at any time may be ascertained by deducting the value or number of those taken from the original package; and this again is effected by subtracting the figures representing the smaller amount from those representing the larger.