| 释义 |
† reˈducement Obs.
[f. as reduced ppl. a. + -ment. Cf. It. riducimento, Sp. reducimiento.]
1. The act of bringing back to a previous state (or position), esp. to right belief or conduct.
1592Warner Alb. Eng. vii. iii. 156 Erickmon..of her loue and witts did wish reducement all in vayne. 1604N. D. [Parsons] 3rd Pt. Three Convers. Eng. 471 What labour and charity was vsed towards them, for their instruction and reducement. 1635W. Barriffe Mil. Discip. ix. (1643) 34 Face to your Leader, a word of Reducement. 1668Howe Bless. Righteous (1825) 26 He manages in order to the reducement of lost Sinners.
b. Const. to a specified state.
1649W. Blithe Eng. Improv. (running title) Englands Improvement: or, a Reducement of Land to pristine Fertility. 1691Wood Ath. Oxon. (1813) I. 618 That he.. plotted the reducement of the R. religion to its ancient vigour.
2. Reduction to (unto) or into a specified quality, state, form, etc.
1609Sir R. Boyle in Lismore Papers Ser. ii. (1887) I. 142 They maie..become instruments in reducement of that part of the kingdome to civillety and obedience. 1649Milton Eikon. ix. Wks. (1851) 401 A universal distemper, and reducement of law to arbitrary power. a1670Rust Disc. Truth (1682) 192 The reducement of a general principle into a particular action.
b. The act of bringing one thing into another.
1641Milton Ch. Govt. i. vi. Wks. (1851) 130 That ancient Prelaty which you say was first constituted for the reducement of quiet and unanimity into the Church.
3. Assignment to a particular kind or class; deduction, inference.
1624R. B. in F. White Repl. Fisher App. 71 The Errors were Fundamentall, reductiue, by a Reducement, if they which embraced them, did pertinaciously adhere to them, hauing sufficient meanes to be better enformed. a1750A. Hill Wks. (1753) II. 228 You are a species in a single pen, and are not to be judg'd by any of the bold reducements of a criticism, drawn from other writers' practice.
4. Conquest, subjugation, reduction (of a town or country).
1617Moryson Itin. ii. 270 For a future absolute reducement of this Countrey. 1650Cromwell Let. 20 June in Carlyle, When we lay before Bristol..we considered..of what importance the reducement thereof would be to the good of the commonwealth. 1692Wagstaffe Vind. Carol. i. 22 They had no sooner gotten an Army and Money together..for the reducement of Ireland [etc.].
5. Reduction, diminution; abatement.
1619Hist. Patient Grisel (Percy Soc.) 40 After a little reducement of his passion. 1646Sir T. Fairfax in H. Cary Mem. Gt. Civ. War (1842) I. 77 The committee of Northampton have applied to me for the reducement of the forces of that garrison. 1661Sir T. Culpeper Abat. Usury (1670) 22 Usury had its first reducement from ten to eight per Cent. 1736Carte Ormonde II. 367 The King had deferred the reducement of the establishment of that kingdom.
6. Decline, decay. rare—1.
1667Waterhouse Fire Lond. 35 The Translations of Empires, the advance and reducement of families,..all these are circumacted by God. |