Same as puer.
To lead or bring back; restore; resolve to a former state.
In surgery, to restore to its proper place, or so that the parts concerned are brought back to their normal topographical relations: as, to reduce a dislocation, fracture, or hernia.
To bring to any specified state, condition, or form: as, to reduce civil affairs to order; to reduce a man to poverty or despair; to reduce glass to powder; to reduce a theory to practice; to reduce a Latin phrase to English.
In metallurgy and chem., to bring into the metallic form; separate, as a metal, from the oxygen or other mineralizer with which it may be combined, or change from a higher to a lower degree of oxidation: as, to reduce the ores of silver or copper.
To atone for; repair; redress.
To bring down; diminish in length, breadth, thickness, size, quantity, value, or the like: as, to reduce expenses; to reduce the quantity of meat in diet; to reduce, the price of goods; to reduce the strength of spirit; to reduce a figure or design (to make a smaller copy of it without changing the form or proportion).
To bring to an inferior condition; weaken; impoverish; lower; degrade; impair in fortune, dignity, or strength: as, the family were in reduced circumstances; the patient was much reduced by hemorrhage.
To subdue, as by force of arms; bring into subjection; render submissive: as, to reduce mutineers to submission; Spain, Gaul, and Britain were reduced by the Roman arms.
To bring into a class, order, genus, or species; bring within certain limits of definition or description.
The variations of languages are reduced to rules.
To show (a problem) to be merely a special case of one already solved.
To change the denomination of (numbers): as, to reduce a number of shillings to farthings, or conversely (see reduction ); change the form of (an algebraic expression) to one simpler or more convenient.
To prove the conclusion of (an indirect syllogism) from its premises by means of direct syllogism and immediate inference alone.
To adjust (an observed quantity) by subtracting from it effects due to the special time and place of observation, especially, in astronomy, by removing the effects of refraction, parallax, aberration, precession, and nutation, changing a circummeridian to a meridian altitude, and the like.
In Scots law, to set aside by an action at law; rescind or annul by legal means: as, to reduce a deed, writing, etc.
Milit., to take off the establishment and strike off the pay-roll, as a regiment. When a regiment is reduced, the officers are generally put upon half-pay.
Synonyms To lessen, decrease, abate, curtail, shorten, abridge, contract, retrench.