reducev.

Brit.

/rᵻˈdjuːs/,

/rᵻˈdʒuːs/, U.S.

/rəˈd(j)us/,

/riˈd(j)us/

Forms: late Middle English redouce, late Middle English redued (past participle, transmission error), late Middle English redus, late Middle English reduyse, late Middle English–1700s reduse, late Middle English– reduce, 1500s redywce; Scottish pre-1700 raduce, pre-1700 reduc, pre-1700 reduse, pre-1700 riduiss, pre-1700 1700s– reduce.

Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French reducer, réduire; Latin redūcere.

Etymology: < Middle French reducer, reducier to recall, to bring back to the memory, mind, etc. (early 15th cent.), variant of réduire (see below) and its etymon classical Latin redūcere to lead or bring back, to withdraw, to retire, to draw back, to revive, to bring back (earlier) in time, to restore, to recall, to represent, to bring (to a state), to bring down (in degree or quality), in post-classical Latin also to subdue (10th cent.), (in logic) to bring a syllogism (or proposition) into a different but equivalent form (a1250 in a British source), to set (a broken bone), to bring down, diminish to a smaller number, amount, quantity, extent, etc. (1363 in Chauliac), to restore a metal to the unchanged or metallic state (1537 in Paracelsus) < re- re- prefix + dūcere to lead, bring (see duct n.). Compare Old Occitan reduire (12th cent.), reduzir (14th cent.; also redusir), Catalan reduir (14th cent.), Spanish reducir (c1440), Portuguese reduzir (14th cent.), Italian ridurre (a1348).Middle French reducer , reducier shows a learned borrowing of the Latin word, beside earlier reduire (12th cent. in Old French in reflexive use in sense ‘to withdraw, to hide’), which shows remodelling after conduire (see conduce v.). Many of the senses of the English word are paralleled by Middle French reduire, French réduire, e.g.: to lead or bring back (a person or thing) (1370; earlier in reflexive use in sense ‘to withdraw, to hide’ (13th cent. in Old French)), to decrease the number or extent of (c1370), to conform to, to adapt to (c1377), to bring (a person) back to God, to the true or right faith (a1389), to recall, to bring back to the memory, mind, etc. (a1389), to set down in writing, to transcribe (second half of the 14th cent.), to force to submit, to overcome, subdue (1412), to bring back to the natural or previous state or condition (a1420), to remind (a person) (a1444), to set (a broken bone) (1478), to translate (c1530), to convert a fraction into a different form, especially one with the lowest possible values of numerator and denominator (1538), to express (a unit) in terms of another denomination or unit (1559), to reduce one's lifestyle, to limit oneself (mid 17th cent.), to smelt (a metal) (1680).

I. To contract, condense; to make smaller, diminish.

1. transitive. To bring or draw together, to contract; to confine. Also reflexive.In later use only as implying reduction of bulk, and as such frequently indistinguishable from sense 2.

ΘΚΠ

the world > space > extension in space > reduction in size or extent > reduce in size or extent [verb (transitive)]

thinc900

narroweOE

smalleOE

slakea1300

adminisha1325

minisha1382

reduce?c1400

diminish1417

littlea1500

extenuate1555

enstraiten1590

scantle1596

scant1599

bedwarfa1631

epitomize1630

dwarf1638

retrench1640

stunt1659

to take in1700

belittle1785

dwarfify1816

reduct1819

micrify1836

clip1858

downsize1977

the world > space > extension in space > reduction in size or extent > reduce in size or extent [verb (reflexive)]

reduce?c1400

lessen1604

?c1400 (c1380) G. Chaucer tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (BL Add. 10340) (1868) iii. pr. viii. l. 2246 Of alle whiche forseide þinges I may reducen [L. redigere] þis shortly in a somme.

1481 W. Caxton tr. Myrrour of Worlde ii. xv. 100 Yf he mete ony beste that wold doo hym harme he reduyseth hym self as rounde as a bowle.

?1533 G. Du Wes Introductorie for to lerne Frenche sig. Giv ^v To reduce narowly, Coartér.

1600 E. Blount tr. G. F. di Conestaggio Hist. Uniting Portugall to Castill 4 Portugall was then obscure, vntilled, poore, and reduced into streight limits.

1655 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. I. iii. 1 This was one of those small villages scattered through Attica, before Theseus reduc'd the people into the walls of a City.

1777 R. Watson Hist. Reign Philip II I. ii. 48 He..reduced the water into a canal large enough to receive some small boats.

1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall V. xlviii. 2 The Roman name..is reduced to a narrow corner of Europe.

1807 ‘P. Plymley’ Two Lett. on Catholics ii. 25 Reduce this declamation to a point, and let us understand what you mean.

1836 C. Dickens Sketches by Boz 1st Ser. II. 122 The unfortunate Tom reduced himself into the least possible space.

1875 Littell's Living Age 6 Nov. 374/1 The discussions and controversies which occupied for years the attention of the literary Italian world can scarcely be reduced into a few paragraphs.

1912 Times 9 Dec. 15/4 Just as if the full power of a stream of water a foot in diameter..were reduced into a pipe 1 in. in diameter.

1985 C. E. Eaton Work of Wrench 49 For the brilliant sun To have reduced itself into a ball Rolled into the room like a yellow billiard.

a. transitive. To bring down or diminish to (formerly †unto) a smaller number, amount, quantity, extent, etc., or to a single thing; (in later use also) to bring down to a simpler form.

ΚΠ

?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 63^v Þer beþ put 8 maner localeȝ to restreyne þe flux of blode, I reduce hem to me as now present vnto 5.

1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. cccxli^v Whan thys..[seemed] ouer long, Clement the sixt reduced [L. redegit] the same vnto fifty yeres.

1581 J. Bell tr. W. Haddon & J. Foxe Against Jerome Osorius f. 403 Whereas Clement the 6. which abridged the Iubilee from the hundreth yeare to the fiftyth... Whereas Gregory the 11. reduced the Iubilee to the 33. yeare.

1591 T. Lodge Catharos f. 16^v These men and Magistrates would not admit that vsurie should exceed the compasse of one pennie for an hundred by the yeare..tenne yeres after..it was reduced vnto halfe an ounce by the moneth.

1627 T. May tr. Lucan Pharsalia (new ed.) vii. Mviijb To what small number is mankind reduc'd.

1662 E. Stillingfleet Origines Sacræ ii. vi. §4 But Aquinas doth better reduce the two former to one.

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost i. 790 Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms Reduc'd thir shapes immense.

1726 D. Defoe Polit. Hist. Devil i. xi. 186 The Church of God was now reduc'd to two Tribes.

1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. at Spunge A pound of spunge.., on drying carefully.., will be reduced to eleven ounces.

1807 T. Young Course Lect. Nat. Philos. I. xxxix. 459 Some substances retain all their properties when they are reduced to the thickness of the ten millionth of an inch at most.

1867 J. H. Stirling tr. A. Schwegler Handbk. Hist. Philos. vi. 15 Eleaticism..endeavours to reduce the manifold of existence to a single ultimate principle.

1871 C. Davies Metric Syst. iii. 187 He finds by experience that these [two] may with increased convenience be reduced to one.

1920 Psychol. Rev. 27 71 The psychological simplification of human behaviour, which reduces instinctive conduct to the functioning of psychical dispositions or impulses.

1954 E. Huxley Four Guineas (1955) 246 The harmattan silvers over the flat, dry, monotonous landscape with powdery dust, reducing visibility to perhaps a hundred yards.

1974 U. K. Le Guin Dispossessed vi. 137 He bit his fingernails, and in years of doing so had reduced them to mere strips across his..fingertips.

2007 Guardian 29 May (G2 section) 26/1 One-hour TV shows from the archive reduced to between three and five minutes.

b. transitive. Without construction: to lower, diminish, lessen; to make smaller; (also) to limit.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > quantity > decrease or reduction in quantity, amount, or degree > reduce in quantity, amount, or degree [verb (transitive)]

littleeOE

anitherOE

wanzelOE

lessc1225

slakea1300

littenc1300

aslakec1314

adminisha1325

allayc1330

settle1338

low1340

minisha1382

reprovea1382

abatea1398

rebatea1398

subtlea1398

alaskia1400

forlyten?a1400

imminish14..

lessenc1410

diminish1417

repress?a1425

assuagec1430

scarcec1440

small1440

underslakec1440

alessa1450

debate?c1450

batec1460

decreasec1470

appetisse1474

alow1494

mince1499

perswage?1504

remita1513

inless?1521

attenuate1530

weaken1530

defray1532

mitigate1532

minorate1534

narrow?1548

diminuec1550

extenuate1555

amain1578

exolve1578

base1581

dejecta1586

amoinder1588

faint1598

qualify1604

contract1605

to pull down1607

shrivel1609

to take down1610

disaugment1611

impoverish1611

shrink1628

decoct1629

persway1631

unflame1635

straiten1645

depress1647

reduce1649

detract1654

minuate1657

alloy1661

lower?1662

sinka1684

retreat1690

nip1785

to drive down1840

minify1866

to knock down1867

to damp down1869

scale1887

mute1891

clip1938

to roll back1942

to cut back1943

downscale1945

downrate1958

slim1963

downshift1972

1649 Moderate No. 35. 364 The house was moved that the Interest of 8.1 per cent. might be reduced to 6 I. per annum.

1670 D. Lloyd State-worthies (ed. 2) 447 His natural inclination to Parsimony, or some fixed design to regulate and reduce the great expences of this Nation.

1733 B. Martyn Reasons establishing Colony of Georgia 9 The Price of that Commodity is greatly reduced abroad.

1787 J. Bentham Def. Usury vii. 69 No law can reduce the common rate of interest below the lowest ordinary market rate, at the time when the law was made.

1833 I. Taylor Fanaticism vi. 169 Every attempt to reduce the plain import of certain passages in the Gospels.

1856 E. K. Kane Arctic Explor. I. x. 114 Step by step..we went on reducing our sledging outfit.

1878 T. H. Huxley Physiography (ed. 2) 42 If a current of warm and moist air meet a colder current its temperature is reduced.

1933 H. Allen Anthony Adverse xxvii. 376 With some difficulty Collins got permission to reduce sail and finally to send down the royal and t'gallant masts.

1940 A. L. M. Sowerby Wall's Dict. Photogr. (ed. 15) 438 Macro-photography occupies a position intermediate between ordinary photography, in which objects are much reduced, and photo-micrography.

1965 M. Frayn Tin Men xiv. 74 The smoke..perpetually made her eyes water, which presumably reduced her vision still further.

2007 New Yorker 26 Nov. 156/2 They'd reduce their carbon footprint with biologically safe, water-activated tape.

c. intransitive. To become lessened, lowered, or limited.

ΚΠ

1912 Geogr. Jrnl. 39 256 In all streams the current is most rapid near the surface, and gradually reduces towards the bed.

1971 Ideal Home Apr. 69/1 The size of houses in sq. ft. has tended to reduce quite rapidly over the last few years.

1992 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 15 Oct. c1 If you cashed in your units within five years, you paid a redemption fee, which reduced each year.

2004 Independent 17 Jan. 17/1 (advt.) His wheezing seemed to reduce and he found easier to breathe clearly through his nose.

3. In various spec. uses.

a. transitive. To bring (liquid) to a smaller volume, and hence to a greater concentration or a thicker consistency, usually by boiling; to condense. Also without construction. Also intransitive: (of liquid) to undergo such a reduction in volume.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > quantity > increase in quantity, amount, or degree > [verb (transitive)] > increase the intensity of > by concentration

reduce1601

concentrate1686

condense1849

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. xxii. ix. 120 The juice of Liquorice reduced to a thicke consistence, if it be put under the tongue, is singular for to cleare the voice.

1658 J. Evelyn tr. N. de Bonnefons French Gardiner App. 292 Reduce this liquor also to a third part, diminishing the fire, according as your confection thickens.

1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. (at cited word) The first step is to reduce that liquor to the consistence of a rob or thick extract.

1778 Farmer's Mag. iii. 226 Let them stew gently over a stove fire, till your gravy is reduced just to cover your fish in the dish.

1853 A. Soyer Pantropheon 271 Wine, reduced to two-thirds by boiling, was added.

1861 Amer. Agriculturist July 203/3 Cook's Patent rocker evaporator..was used to reduce the syrup.

1911 F. M. Farmer Catering for Special Occasions v. 123 One-half can tomatoes, stewed, strained, and cooked until reduced to two tablespoons.

1949 Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner 9 Dec. 4 b/6 Cover and simmer... If gravy should reduce too fast, add more cream or chicken broth.

1996 Divertimenti Mail Order Catal. Autumn 29/1 The 16cm pan with splayed sides is the ideal size for reducing stock for sauces.

b. transitive. To diminish the strength or concentration of; to dilute.

ΘΚΠ

the world > food and drink > drink > manufacture of alcoholic drink > distilling > [verb (transitive)] > lower strength

to make up1725

reduce1725

1725 G. Smith Compl. Body Distilling ii. 96 When the goods are reduced, and the body of them weaken'd with liquor, the Oyl separating from the spirit..renders the whole of a milky colour.

1779 W. A. Smyth Publican's Guide 22 I do not mean to insinuate that rum reduced with water is pernicious; it may be very good, if the aqua is pure.

1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 774 Keep reducing this ink with gum-water until it flows with ease from the pen or reed.

1880 Act 43 & 44 Vict. c. 24 §67 A distiller may..reduce with water any plain spirits.

1963 Times 26 Oct. 6/4 In the vatting hall the whisky is ‘reduced’ with water..to the required proof strength.

1986 J. Peacock et al. Print & Production Man. viii. 144 Gravure ink is often supplied at higher viscosities than is required on the press, and is reduced with solvent before printing.

1997 Independent (Nexis) 31 May 42 Like most spirits, many rums are reduced with water, to be bottled at 40 or 42 per cent.

c. transitive. To bring down or mark down (a piece of merchandise, etc.) to a lower price. Also without construction. Frequently in passive. Cf. reduced adj. 2c.

ΚΠ

1763 Ann. Reg. 1762 i. 147/1 What remained..were further reduced to half-price.

1797 Times 12 Oct. 1/2 (advt.) The Stock has been designedly reduced very low, for the accommodation of the purchaser.

1852 Hull Packet & E. Riding Times 11 June 4/1 (advt.) The spring and summer stock reduced, to clear at a sacrifice, prior to the stoppage of trade produced by the coming election.

1872 Daily Tel. 30 Nov. The old Dutch auction, by which an article was put up at a high price, and, if nobody accepted the offer, then reduced to a lower.

1896 Times 28 Jan. 16/3 (advt.) All model gowns and costumes further reduced to clear.

1939 J. Joyce Finnegans Wake i. 166 A real fur, reduced to 3/9.

1991 Independent 2 Dec. 19/7 I..cannot really justify the purchase of an Astro V Computer Horoscope, even reduced to $29.95.

2006 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 9 Oct. i. 11 (advt.) Shop early for best selection... All drastically reduced for immediate take with or delivery!

d. transitive. Photography. To decrease the density of (a print or negative). Cf. reducer n. 2d, reduction n. 14f.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > photography > photographic processes > [verb (transitive)] > develop > developing procedures

reduce1855

tan1899

rehalogenize1969

1855 T. F. Hardwich Man. Photogr. Chem. ii. v. 291 Albumen pictures are more reduced by the colouring Bath than Ammonio-Nitrate pictures.

1889 E. J. Wall Dict. Photogr. 158 Bromide prints may be reduced in exactly the same way as negatives.

1903 A. Watkins Photography (ed. 2) 118 Do not throw away paper prints which are too dark from over printing. They can be reduced.

1963 P. Moyes Murder à la Mode iv. 65 ‘What does “reducing” mean, exactly?’ ‘Makin' the print lighter... If the neg's too contrasty, like you can't get the light part to print without the dark's too dark. So you reduce it. By nibbin' the dark part with cyanide.’

e. transitive. Linguistics. To articulate (a speech sound) in a way requiring less muscular effort; esp. to form (a vowel) in a more neutral, centralized articulatory position; to alter to a particular vowel in this way; to weaken, obscure. Cf. reduced adj. 2b.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > language > linguistics > study of speech sound > speech sound > vowel > furnish with or produce by vowel [verb (transitive)] > types of

obscurea1637

lower1836

labialize1855

reduce1861

round1869

raise1874

unround1874

delabialize1875

tense1978

1861 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 8 369 In unaccented syllables they [sc. vowels] are more or less reduced.

1874 A. J. Ellis On Early Eng. Pronunc. IV. iv. 1099/1 Reducing (r_o) from a consonant to a pure glide.

1909 D. Jones Pronunc. of Eng. i. 46 Cases occur in which almost all other vowels may be reduced to ə when unstressed.

1962 A. C. Gimson Introd. Pronunc. Eng. vii. 143 In present RP the secondary accent has been lost and the former [e] or [ɛ:] reduced to [ə] or elided.

1993 Eng. Today Apr. 20/1 People in southern England..do not give full value to short vowels, reducing them to the universal /ə/.

4. transitive (reflexive). To slim; to lose weight. Also (in later use esp.) intransitive in same sense. Now chiefly U.S.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > quantity > decrease or reduction in quantity, amount, or degree > decrease in quantity, amount, or degree [verb (intransitive)]

littleOE

setc1000

wanzec1175

lessc1225

allayc1275

wane1297

slaken1303

disincreasec1374

slakec1380

decrease1382

debatea1400

unwaxa1400

wastea1400

adminishc1400

lessenc1400

imminish14..

aslakec1405

minish?a1425

assuagec1430

shrinkc1449

to let down1486

decay1489

diminish1520

fall1523

rebate1540

batea1542

to come down1548

abate1560

stoop1572

pine1580

slack1580

scanten1585

shrivel1588

decrew1596

remit1629

contract1648

subside1680

lower1697

relax1701

drop1730

to take off1776

to run down1792

reduce1798

recede1810

to run off1816

to go down1823

attenuatea1834

ease1876

downscale1945

the world > life > the body > bodily shape or physique > slim shape or physique > slim [verb (intransitive)]

reduce1798

slenderize1923

slim1930

to lose weight1961

1798 Ld. Palmerston Diary in B. Connell Portrait of Whig Peer (1957) xii. 408 On February 23rd came to London, reduced myself to about 12 stone, 10 lbs.

1807 Ld. Byron Let. Apr. (1973) I. 117 Since we met, I have reduced myself by violent exercise..from 14 Stone 6 LB. to 12 Stone 7 LB.

1811 L.-M. Hawkins Countess & Gertrude II. xlii. 368 Miss Mendax has now lived, for a long time, on a biscuit per diem... She certainly does not reduce on it.

1892 Waterloo (Iowa) Daily Courier 13 May I'm trying to reduce so that I'll fit my last summer's negligee shirts.

1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 13 June 334/5 A commendably simple and, at the same time, reliable guide for those who wish to ‘reduce’ without too much trouble.

1971 Homes & Gardens Sept. 65/3 I try continually to reduce, but you cannot take a couple out for a gay evening and be on a diet.

1996 C. Guess Seeing Dell i. 16 Oh my. So much fried food. I'm trying to reduce.

II. To bring back; to bring.

†5. transitive. To bring back, restore (a condition, state of things, time, etc.). Also with into (a place). Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > amending > restoration > restore [verb (transitive)] > a condition or state of things

accordlOE

to call againc1390

reduce1419

repeala1500

to call back?1510

recall1580

reinduce1609

gaincall1611

the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > use or make use of [verb (transitive)] > bring or put into use > bring into use or practice > again

reduce1588

reinduce1609

reintroduce1642

1419 Guildhall Let.-bk. in R. W. Chambers & M. Daunt Bk. London Eng. (1931) 99 (MED) Many gret now-a-dayes..vnthrifty wynes..put yn diuers buttys..gummyd with picche, code, & oþir horrible & vnholsome þinges, for to reduce and bryng ayen..a plesaunt colour.

1477 W. Caxton tr. R. Le Fèvre Hist. Jason (1913) 120b To reduce his yongth in suche wise as he shall seme..in the aage of xxxij yere.

c1550 Complaynt Scotl. (1979) xi. 71 Ȝour foir fathers..reducit there liberte, quhilk vas ane lang tyme in captiuite.

1588 D. Rogers in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1827) 2nd Ser. III. 152 He causeth manie superstitious and popish ceremonies to be reduced into the Church.

1597 W. Shakespeare Richard III v. viii. 36 Abate the edge of traitors..That would reduce these bloudy daies againe.

1627 R. Sybthorpe Apostolike Obed. 20 So the papists lye at waite..to reduce superstition into England.

1630 tr. G. Botero Relations Famous Kingdomes World (rev. ed.) 207 The States..cannot on the sudden reduce perfection in the profession of Religion.

c1665 L. Hutchinson Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1973) 53 The endeavours to reduce Poperie, and subvert the true Protestant religion.

1718 T. Dawson Suspiria Sacra v. 16 The Directions given by the famous Jesuit, Contzens for reducing Popery into a Country.

1823 C. Lamb Old Benchers in Elia 206 While childhood, and while dreams, reducing childhood, shall be left.

†6.

a. transitive. To bring back to (also from) a particular state or condition. Also with other prepositions, and without construction. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > amending > restoration > restore [verb (transitive)] > a thing to or into previous condition

reversec1350

reforma1393

recover1393

converta1425

reduce?a1425

revolve1431

returnc1436

recure?1440

remayne1481

relieve1483

redressc1500

restaur1508

reprieve?1567

recollect1606

redeem1613

regain1624

to bring back1662

re-reducea1676

?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 171 After hys wirching he [sc. green unguent] leseþ his rednez and is reduced to grennes.

a1428 in G. W. Kitchin Rec. N. Convocation (1907) 161 (MED) Yai yt has bene broght in errour si [read bi] my sayd prechyng..may be reducid and broght agayn oute of ye errour be yis my revokyng.

?1486 in M. Bateson Rec. Borough Leicester (1901) II. 310 The Kyng our souereigne lord, as a Christen & lowyng prince, entendyng to reduce this his realme to ye auncien honour & prosperite yat hit haeth stonden in, in dayes passed.

1565 T. Stapleton Disc. Doctr. Protestants in tr. F. Staphylus Apol. f. 243 The impudent bragges made nowe in euery pulpit, that all is reduced to the state of the primitiue churche.

1598 R. Barckley Disc. Felicitie of Man ii. 93 To reduce him againe to his former grauitie and course of life.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) v. ii. 63 Which to reduce into our former fauour, You are assembled.

1639 T. Fuller Hist. Holy Warre iv. viii. 182 Matters for the main [were] reduced to the same estate they were at the first peace.

1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica vii. xix. 384 For the satisfaction of their revenge they..would have reduced them unto life again.

1695 J. Woodward Ess. Nat. Hist. Earth 94 Reducing him from the most abject and stupid Ferity, to his Senses, and to sober Reason.

1717 D. Defoe Quarrel of School-boys 16 Thus he was reduced to his former independent State.

1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iv. ii. 28 As if he would signify, that I should reduce them to their former Shape.

1765 Museum Rusticum 4 21 If once a fruit is become deformed, no art will then reduce it.

b. transitive. spec. To lead or bring back (a person) from error, sin, immorality, etc.; to restore to the truth or the right faith. Obsolete.Common without construction c1600–1700.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > amending > restoration > restoration of a person > [verb (transitive)]

uprighta1340

to bring to (one's) statea1387

restorea1387

remount?c1400

reducec1425

redraw1480

reintegrate1495

restitutec1503

repair?1521

revocate1527

recall1567

redintegrate1578

rehabilitate1580

refetch1599

revindicate1609

re-estate1611

uprighten1618

redintegrate1622

restate1625

redeem1686

society > morality > virtue > righteousness or rectitude > reform, amendment, or correction > reform, amend, or correct [verb (transitive)] > specifically a person

raisec1175

chastya1240

amenda1275

chastisec1330

reara1382

revokec1384

redressc1390

reclaima1393

reducec1425

reform1477

reclaim?a1505

emendc1542

claim1546

reduct1548

save1857

decriminalize1963

c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) ii. 183 (MED) I hadde as þo no guyde Me to reducyn whan I went a-wrong.

c1475 Wisdom (Folger) (1969) 313 (MED) Wen I erryde, þou reducyde me, Jhesus.

1502 tr. Ordynarye of Crysten Men (de Worde) iv. i. sig. r.i To reduce a synner from the estate of mortall synne, vnto the estate of grace.

1533 T. More 2nd Pt. Confut. Tyndals Answere viii. p. cccccxxxix He thought it a benefyt to the heretyques them selfs to be reduced from theyr errours into the ryght fayth.

1556 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxf. (1880) 245 One Friar John..travelled with him to reduce him. But it would not be.

1590 A. Hutchinson in H. Barrow & J. Greenwood Coll. Sclaunderous Articles C To confer with him about his seperating of himself from the Church of England, if I might reduce him.

a1631 J. Donne Βιαθανατος (1647) ii. iii. §1 It is not a better understanding of nature, which hath reduced us from it.

1643 J. Milton Soveraigne Salve 1 If any of these erring men may be reduced, I have my end.

1674 W. Allen Danger of Enthusiasm 20 This very thing..would in great part reduce you, and set you to rights.

1686 R. Parr Life J. Usher 93 This Holy Primate..laboured instantly to reduce Popish Recusants and Sectaries from their Errors.

1710 R. Ward Life H. More 62 Philotheus presently reduceth him with this sober and edifying Discourse.

?1735 J. Tottie Ridicule 30 Our only aim is, by all gentle Arguments of Persuasion, to reduce them from Error to the Acknowledgement of the Truth.

1788 V. Knox Winter Evenings II. iv. xi. 69 So is the knowledge of the passions..necessary to him whose office it is to reduce those who have erred.

c. transitive. To redress, make up for (a wrong). Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > amending > put right [verb (transitive)] > put right (a wrong or loss)

winc1220

righta1275

astorec1300

addressa1325

reform1405

dressc1410

redressa1413

arightc1420

refound1497

richa1500

redub1531

repair1533

to make good1569

reducec1592

remend1592

to set up1610

to get up1688

c1592 C. Marlowe Jew of Malta i. ii Till they reduce the wrongs done to my father.

†7. transitive. In physical sense: to draw or pull back again. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > movement > impelling or driving > pushing and pulling > push and pull [verb (transitive)] > pull > pull back

reduce?a1425

retract?a1475

retraha1513

retire1594

disadvance1596

repair1596

rehale1613

repull1632

revulsec1694

?a1425 MS Hunterian 95 f. 114^v (MED) Putte þe midwarde þerof euen apon þe nose & lede þe endes euen to þe nodel bihynde..& lete þe tone cumme o crosse ouer þe toþer and reduce hem euen ouer þe nose aȝeine.

1611 L. Barry Ram-Alley i. i By her actiuity she got it [sc. her leg]..Crosse her shoulder: but not with all her power Could she reduce it.

1626 G. Sandys tr. Ovid Metamorphosis xi. 228 The Sea-men..Reduce their oares, vp-rising from their Banks With equall strokes.

1698 J. Pechey Compl. Midwife's Practice (ed. 5) iv. xxviii. 144 Let her thrust up her other Hand, and reduce the Arms of the Infant to the sides of it.

8. transitive. Surgery. To set (a broken bone); to restore (esp. a dislocated, fractured, or herniated part) to a normal anatomical position.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > surgery > treatments uniting or replacing parts > unite or replace parts [verb (transitive)] > set bones or dislocations

reduce?a1425

set1572

to set together1578

to set to1598

counter-extend1656

the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > surgery > treatments uniting or replacing parts > unite or replace parts [verb (transitive)] > restore to position

reduce?a1425

reposit1884

?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 1 Separate is ioyned in consolding wondes & in reducyng [?c1425 Paris ledynge aȝeyne; L. reducendo] algebras.

c1475 tr. Henri de Mondeville Surgery (Wellcome) f. 161^v (MED) It [sc. a broken bone] be reducid to þe same place þat it schulde be reducid to.

?1541 R. Copland Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens iv. sig. Niv^v The .vj. place is vpon the matryce, and vpon the bowelles for to reduce and withdrawe them to theyr places.

1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 912 Salt with meal and honey, takes away the pain of a joynt that is dislocated,..and makes it more apt to be reduced.

1689 J. Moyle Abstr. Sea Chyrurg. ii. vi. 44 Your compound Fracture..will be the more difficult to reduce, because of the new Located Joint.

1720 D. Defoe Life Capt. Singleton 207 He reduced the Splinters of the Bone, and calling for Help, set it.

1748 T. Smollett Roderick Random I. xxviii. 258 We reduced the fracture, dressed the wound, applied the eighteen-tailed bandage.

1803 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 9 202 A man who had dislocated his shoulder, and had had it reduced by a celebrated bone-setter.

1807 S. Cooper First Lines Pract. Surg. I. ii. xxxiv. 387 The congenital hernia, when returnable, ought like all other ruptures to be reduced.

a1859 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. (1861) V. xxv. 306 The jolting of the rough roads..made it necessary to reduce the fracture again.

1901 Lancet 22 June 1762/1 While the patient was under the influence of the anæsthetic the dislocation [of the patella] was easily reduced by manipulation.

1977 P. O'Brian Mauritius Command v. 145 The ship had been on a comparatively even keel for some time, with no new cases coming below and the last of the fractured clavicles reduced.

2000 Atchison (Kansas) Daily Globe 22 Aug. 6/6 Ordinarily, a surgeon can readily reduce the hernia (push the bowel back through the hole) and over-sew the opening.

†9.

a. transitive. To lead or bring back (a person or animal) to (also into, from, etc.) a place or way, or to a person. Also intransitive. Obsolete.Frequently in figurative contexts, esp. with allusion to the idea of returning to righteousness, good conduct, etc.: cf. sense 6b.

ΘΚΠ

society > travel > aspects of travel > guidance in travel > show (the way) [verb (transitive)] > lead back

teachc893

forleadOE

to lead the wayc1175

kenc1200

dressc1330

lerec1330

guy1362

guidec1374

reduce?a1425

tell1485

way lead1485

arrect1530

reconduct1566

reduct1580

the world > action or operation > amending > restoration > restoration of a person > [verb (transitive)] > to or from a place or way

reduce?a1425

recall1579

?a1425 tr. Catherine of Siena Orcherd of Syon (Harl.) (1966) 270 (MED) Þei ceesciden neuere to reduce and brynge yn beestis þat weren lost to þe feeld [v.r. fold] of holy chirche.

c1450 ( J. Walton tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Linc. Cathedral 103) 217 (MED) Þi wey may reduce the ageyn [L. te..reducem referat] Vnto þis place.

c1475 (?c1400) Apol. Lollard Doctr. (1842) 1 (MED) Preying also ilke man to reduce me in to þe riȝt wey..if I haue gon biside þe wey.

1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid vi. ii. 84 Gif Orpheus mycht reduce agane..From hell his spousis gost.

a1535 Bp. J. Fisher Wks. (E.E.T.S.) 439 So must y^e heretickes be reduced vnto y^e wayes of y^e churche.

1563 E. Grindal Remains (Parker Soc.) 263 Excommunication..is the ordinary mean..to reduce men to God.

1565 A. Golding tr. Caesar Martiall Exploytes in Gallia vi. f. 174 Wyth the losse of two Cohorts he reduced the rest to Durocort.

1641 J. Milton Of Prelatical Episc. 3 Doing my utmost endeavour..to reduce them to their firme stations under the standard of the Gospell.

1650 W. Brough Sacred Princ. 413 This..Reduces to a Paradise both of Joy and Innocence.

1726–31 N. Tindal tr. P. Rapin de Thoyras Hist. Eng. (1743) II. xvii. 52 Their attempt to reduce the Protestants within the Pale of the Romish Church.

a1727 I. Newton Chronol. Anc. Kingdoms Amended (1728) ii. 223 Bacchus appeased him with wine, and reduced him back into heaven.

1748 J. Dickinson Second Vindic. God's Sovereign Free Grace 90 It concerns you..out of Love..to your wandring Brother..to endeavour to reduce him into the Path of Truth and Safety.

b. transitive. Without construction. Obsolete.

ΚΠ

a1525 Bk. Sevyne Sagis 1321 in W. A. Craigie Asloan MS (1925) II. 42 Than was þe child reducit sone.

1578 J. Lyly Euphues f. 30^v For all his trauails he reduced (I cannot say reclaymed) but a straggeler.

1609 Bible (Douay) I. 2 Sam. xix. 10 How long are you stil, and reduce not the king?

1642 E. Dering Coll. Speeches on Relig. xvi. 83 Reduce, replant our Bishop President.

1684 tr. T. Bonet Guide Pract. Physician Pref. 1 Mercury's Statue was placed in the Cross-ways, to guide Men in the right way, and to reduce them that were out.

†10.

a. transitive. To bring (a person or thing) to (occasionally towards) a particular state or condition. Also reflexive. Obsolete.In some instances some suggestion of restoration or resumption (cf. sense 6) is retained.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > change > change to something else, transformation > transform [verb (transitive)]

wendOE

forshapeOE

workOE

awendOE

makec1175

turna1200

forwenda1325

change1340

shape1362

transmewc1374

transposec1380

puta1382

convertc1384

exchangea1400

remue?a1400

makea1425

reduce?a1425

removec1425

resolvea1450

transvertc1450

overchangec1480

mew1512

transmutea1513

wring1524

reduct1548

transform1556

innovate1561

metamorphose1576

transume1579

metamorphize1587

transmove1590

transchangea1599

transfashion1601

deflect1613

fordo1624

entail1628

transmutate1632

distila1637

to make much (also little, something, nothing, etc.) of1637

transqualify1652

unconvert1654

simulate1658

spend1668

transverse1687

hocus-pocus1774

mutate1796

fancy1801

to change around1871

metamorphosize1888

catalyse1944

morph1996

?a1425 MS Hunterian 95 f. 180^v (MED) A þing þat is lasse to þe þrid degre of colde moste be reduced to attemperaunce be hete lasse to þe same degree of hete.

1435 in J. Stevenson Lett. & Papers Illustr. Wars Eng. in France (1864) II. 432 To reduce the parties to that that reson and equite wollen.

1485 W. Caxton tr. Thystorye & Lyf Charles the Grete sig. avj/1 Fraunce was enhaunced & reduced to mageste ryal.

a1538 T. Starkey Dial. Pole & Lupset (1989) 69 The prynce ys no thyng in boundage therby, but rather reducyd to true lyberty.

1581 W. Lambarde Eirenarcha (1588) iv. xvi. 582 This Fine (that is reduced to certaintie by the discretion of the Iustices).

1611 M. Smith in Bible (King James) Transl. Pref. ⁋2 Seeking to reduce their Countrey-men to good order and discipline.

1630 Bp. J. Hall Occas. Medit. §xci All things, the more perfect they are, the more doe they reduce themselues towards that vnitie, which is the Centre of all perfection.

1665 J. Webb Vindic. Stone-Heng Restored 76 The Romans..reduced the natural inhabitants from their Barbarism to the society of civil life.

1726 J. Swift Cadenus & Vanessa 21 With pleasing Arts she could reduce Men's Talents to their proper Use.

1792 H. H. Brackenridge Mod. Chivalry I. iv. v. 104 Could it [sc. the institution of the duel] not be reduced nearer to an equality of chances, by proportioning the caliber, or bore of the pistol.

b. transitive. With to (occasionally unto). To lead (a person) to adopt or take up a particular belief or opinion; to convince or persuade (a person) of something. Also intransitive. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > belief > school of thought > acknowledge belief [verb (transitive)] > win over

infecta1387

reduce1546

disciple1645

discipulize1652

to get over1656

convert1814

1546 S. Gardiner Declar. True Articles f. xii His highnes, was desyrouse of concorde in the truth, rather then the punysshemente of any man that wolde from erroure be reduced to the truth.

1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) I. i. 76/2 At what tyme, the wholsome doctrine of the Gospel allured and reduced the hartes of all sortes of people vnto the true religion of God.

1592 A. Day Eng. Secretorie (rev. ed.) i. sig. E1^v The natures..of the other [being] to withdraw, disswade or reduce to an other meaning.

1685 R. Baxter Paraphr. New Test. Rom. xv. (note) I despair of reducing that Man to the Truth herein, who shall continue of either of these Opinions.

1712 W. Rogers Cruising Voy. 89 This is the way of living in those Cantons, which the Missionaries call Reductions, because, if you'll believe 'em, they have reduc'd them to Christianity by their Preaching.

1780 Times addressed to Freemen of Ireland 46 Some old practitioners of deceit..are sometimes gradually reduced to a belief of their possessing certain virtues, instead of their opposite vices.

c. transitive. With infinitive. To lead or induce (a person) to do something. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > will > motivation > persuasion > persuade (a person) [verb (transitive)] > persuade or prevail upon > to do something

procurea1325

draw1425

inducec1450

draw1531

obtain1558

reduce?a1560

weighc1571

charma1592

obtain1606

bias1660

gain1681

import1825

wangle1926

?a1560 L. Digges Geom. Pract.: Pantometria (1571) Pref. sig. Aiv Suche two footed Moules and Todes..maye not possibly..be reduced or moued to taste or sauour any whitte of vertue.

1569 R. Grafton Chron. II. 672 The lorde Marques could by no meanes be reduced to take any part against king Edwarde.

1629 J. Ford Lovers Melancholy i. 9 He knowes no reason, but he may reduce The courtiers to haue women waite on them.

1656 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. II. vi. 72 That which moveth the tast, and reduceth it to act.

1688 T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia i. i. 9 We must reduce him to have as much need of us as possible.

1762 S. Scott Descr. Millenium Hall 95 A pursuit, which, if successful, could not answer his hopes, nor reduce her to render herself wretched by becoming his wife.

d. transitive. To place under, or to gather or rally to, a commander, master, etc. Obsolete.

ΚΠ

1588 Ld. Burghley Copie Let. to B. Mendoza 7 Gouerned by the principall Noble men..and reduced vnder Captaines of knowledge.

1604 E. Grimeston tr. J. de Acosta Nat. & Morall Hist. Indies vii. xxvii. 584 The greate difficultie they haue founde to reduce those Indians to Christ.

1630 J. Smith True Trav. 49 Some English and Irish..he reduced to his company and to leave the Dutch.

†11.

a. transitive. To bring back to the memory, mind, etc.; to recall. Obsolete.Common in 16th cent.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > memory > call to mind, recollect [verb (transitive)]

i-thenchec897

bethinkOE

mingOE

thinkOE

monelOE

umbethinkc1175

to draw (also take) into (or to) memorya1275

minc1330

record1340

revert1340

remembera1382

mindc1384

monishc1384

to bring to mindc1390

remenec1390

me meanetha1400

reducec1425

to call to mind1427

gaincall1434

pense1493

remord?1507

revocate1527

revive1531

cite1549

to call back1572

recall1579

to call to mind (also memory, remembrance)1583

to call to remembrance1583

revoke1586

reverse1590

submonish1591

recover1602

recordate1603

to call up1606

to fetch up1608

reconjure1611

collect1612

remind1615

recollect1631

rememorize1632

retrieve1644

think1671

reconnoitre1729

member1823

reminisce1829

rememorate1835

recomember1852

evoke1856

updraw1879

withcall1901

access1978

the mind > mental capacity > memory > reminder, putting in mind > remind [verb (transitive)]

mingOE

mina1200

bethink1340

recorda1382

reducec1425

rememberc1425

rememorate1460

mind1524

revive?1564

remembrance1593

recall1595

prompt1600

remind1621

enmind1645

immind1647

refricate1657

commonish1661

flap1790

to touch up1796

c1425 Bk. Found. St. Bartholomew's (1923) 3 (MED) He, wepynge hys dedis and reducyng to mynde [L. ad memoriam reducens] the scapis of his yougth and ignoraunces, prayd to oure lorde for remyssioun.

a1450 tr. Aelred of Rievaulx De Institutione Inclusarum (Bodl.) (1984) 7 Holichirche..hath ordeyned..Lente, for to reduce to oure mynde that we ben putte away out of paradyse.

?a1475 Ludus Coventriae (1922) 263 (MED) Delyuere me, fadyr, fro þis peyn Weche is reducyd with ful gret dred.

1513 G. Douglas in tr. Virgil Æneid vii. Prol. 45 Ane similitude of hell, Reducyng to our mynd..Goustly schaddois of eild and grisly deid.

1559 in Knox Hist. Ref. in Wks. (1846) I. 437 It will pleise your Grace reduce to your remembrance, how..we required [etc.].

1594 G. Peele Battell of Alcazar iii. iv. sig. E^v So freshly to my minde, Hath this yong prince redus'd his fathers wrong.

1624 H. Wotton Elements Archit. in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (1672) 66 Reducing often to my memory that conceit of the Roman Stoick.

1663 J. Heath Chron. Late Intestine War 395 The vapouring and ranting conclusions of this story; which reduceth to memory another terrible occurrence to the Protector.

1710 T. Blomer Full View Dr. Bentley's Let. 104 I will undertake to reduce to his Memory One Example, which plainly contradicts..his vain Brag.

1881 A. J. Duffield tr. M. de Cervantes Don Quixote II. xxx. 49 With this advertence your greatness will easily be able to reduce to your offended memory all that you may be pleased to rehearse.

b. transitive. To bring back (the mind, thoughts, a discourse, etc.) from (also to) a subject. Also without construction. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > memory > call to mind, recollect [verb (transitive)] > mind, attention

reduce?a1475

recall1592

recollect1598

?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1871) III. 205 (MED) His disciples cowthe reduce theire myndes from wickede thouȝhtes thro musike and songe.

1563 J. Foxe Actes & Monuments 403/1 Luther diligently reduced the mindes of men, to the sonne of God.

a1634 W. Austin Devotionis Augustinianæ Flamma (1635) 292 Then cease,..And with these words reduce thy Thoughts that Roame.

1655 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. I. ii. 15 Pericles..could easily reduce the exercise of his mind from secret obstrusive things to publick popular causes.

1700 M. Prior Carmen Sæculare 12 To Janus Altars and the numerous Throng..Ambitious Muse reduce the roving Song.

1706 tr. J. B. Morvan de Bellegarde Refl. upon Ridicule 58 Whatever Digressions I made, he still reduc'd the Discourse to the same Subject.

c. transitive. To bring (a person) back to a recollection of something. Obsolete. rare.

ΚΠ

?1541 R. Copland Galen's Fourth Bk. Terapeutyke sig. Fiij, in Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens He reduceth [Fr. reduict] vs to mynde of that he hath sayde before.

12.

†a. transitive. To apply or adapt to a purpose. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > order > agreement, harmony, or congruity > adaptation or adjustment > adapt or adjust [verb (transitive)]

afaite?c1225

ablea1400

reducec1450

fashion1526

adapt1531

framec1537

handsome1555

accommode1567

apt?1578

square1578

fit1580

coapt1586

commodate1595

suit1595

dispose1602

adjust1611

agence1633

adaptate1638

plya1657

c1450 (c1415) in W. O. Ross Middle Eng. Serm. (1940) 66 (MED) Euery preyere is redressed to þe ese of som man, as þis preyere was reduced to þe ese of hure dowȝtur.

?1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Husbandry f. v^v To reduce and bringe the same text to my purpose: I take it thus.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 682/1 All the artycles whiche he hath layde agaynst me I truste to reduce them to my purpose.

a1613 T. Bodley Life (1647) 15 I could not busy my selfe to better purpose, then by reducing that place..to the publique use of Students.

1667 T. Sprat Hist. Royal-Soc. 154 If we should require them, immediately to reduce all their labours, to publick, and conspicuous use.

1761 tr. C. Batteux Course Belles Lettres II. ii. 9 That man..should..conform to the matter itself on which he would operate, as being unable to reduce it to his purposes.

1789 J. Fitch Let. 14 Apr. in T. Jefferson Papers (1958) XV. 642 My Experiments [on steam-propulsion]..will this summer be reduced to profitable use in a Stage Boat.

b. transitive. With to (formerly †into, †unto). To put (a theory, principle, idea, or the like) into practice, action, etc. Now chiefly U.S. (mainly in Law and scientific contexts).

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > doing > practice, exercise, or doing > practise or carry on [verb (transitive)] > exercise or put into practice (principle or quality)

kithec1330

usec1330

apply1395

execute14..

in urec1420

exercisea1513

to put into (also in) practice1553

reduce1581

to make practice of1623

exsert1665

exert1682

1581 T. Rogers tr. N. Hemmingsen Faith of Church Militant i. xl. 335 Although the vse of the sacrifice of Christ, is wel nigh seene in the application: yet the efficacie and power thereof is more apparent, when the knoweledge is reduced vnto practise as it were.

a1628 C. Brooke Poems (1872) 209 Of armes and arts, he had the theorie, Which he reduc't to practise.

1668 J. Howe Blessednesse of Righteous 116 Heretofore some gracious dispositions have been to seek..when there was most need and occasion for their being reduced into act.

1709 A. Pope Let. 7 May (1956) I. 57 I thought your Observation..not a Rule without Exceptions, nor that ever it had been reduc'd to Practise.

1799 W. Godwin St. Leon IV. ii. 59 When my plan became known, and I had already in a few instances reduced my maxims into practice.

1818 Edinb. Advertiser 10 July 20/2 When..have doctrines of this sort been reduced to practice, without leading through anarchy to Military Despotism!

a1871 G. Grote Fragm. Ethical Subj. (1876) iv. 81 Dispositions..reduced into action.

1885 Harper's Mag. Nov. 963/1 The great statesman who..was the first to..reduce to practice those principles of revenue, credit, and finance.

1916 T. Roosevelt Fear God & take your own Part p. xiii Merely treating these eternal principles as having their place forever in the realm of abstract thought and never to be reduced to action.

1927 Michigan Law Rev. 25 889 Here the proponent has not reduced his idea to practice as in the case of an inventor.

1960 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 10 June d38/5 (advt.) Must have experience and talent in original engineering design in reducing concepts to practice.

2007 Melbourne Univ. Law Rev. (Nexis) 31 Originating inventions..consist of an idea that is subsequently reduced to practice.

†c. transitive. To bring to a determination, to settle, arrange. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > judge, determine [verb (transitive)] > conclude

resolvec1565

conclude1586

pitch1610

reduce1616

to set at rest1826

1616 Sir C. Mountagu in Buccleuch MSS (Hist. MSS Comm.) (1899) I. 250 They say they have now reduced it to have the money brought in, in eight years.

†d. transitive. With to. To bring into conformity or agreement with a standard. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > order > agreement, harmony, or congruity > adaptation or adjustment > adapt or adjust [verb (transitive)] > bring into conformity

conform1377

redressa1538

uniforma1586

quader1588

reduce1621

quadrate?1630

comply1642

assimilate1664

1621 Acts Parl. Scotl. (1816) IV. 632/1 Quhairby all the measoris that ar now vseit may be reducit to the conformitie off the said [sc. Linlithgow] measure.

1662 B. Gerbier Brief Disc. Princ. Building 38 By the not reducing whatsoever is represented to the true Lines of Perspective.

1703 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion II. iv. 52 It admitted an interpretation of reducing the Government of the Church in Scotland to this of England.

1799 A. Walker Syst. Familiar Philos. x. 481 If solar and sidereal time could be reduced to equal time, all the celestial motions, and all duration, would be reduced to one standard.

e. transitive. Chiefly Astronomy. To modify (an observation) so that it is applicable to a particular place or point; to correct by making allowances for position or other modifying circumstances. Cf. reduction n. 13.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the universe > cosmology > science of observation > observe [verb (transitive)] > correct

reduce1633

1633 H. Gellibrand in T. James Strange Voy. App. sig. R3 The [moon's] true place at midnight reduced to the Ecliptique.

1748 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 45 23 By which means I was able to reduce all the Observations of the same Star to the same Point.

1812 R. Woodhouse Elem. Treat. Astron. x. 73 Observations, therefore, seen at the surface, must be reduced to the center.

1839 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 1838 i. 22 The observations with the barometer are complete up to June last, all the observations having been reduced.

1881 Nature No. 625. 594 To collect..all information on this subject, and finally to reduce the Indian observations.

1934 H. S. Jones Gen. Astron. (ed. 2) v. 99 To reduce the apparent place to the mean place at a definite epoch corrections must be applied for precession, nutation, aberration, annual parallax, and for the proper motion of the star.

2004 D. Pugh Changing Sea Levels 246 (Gloss.) National tidal datum epoch, the specific 19-year period..over which sea level observations are taken and reduced to obtain mean values for datum definition.

†13.

a. transitive. With to, into. To take back, trace, refer (a thing) to its origin, author, etc. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > existence and causation > causation > source or origin > originate or be a source of [verb (transitive)] > attribute to an author or source

refera1398

reducec1454

father?1499

entitle1550

intitule1559

foist1598

attribute1599

mother1645

authoridate1652

accredit1864

c1454 R. Pecock Folewer to Donet 85 (MED) Loke þat þou resolue and reduce into þis ground al what þou hast forto iuge forto haue moral goodnes.

c1475 tr. Henri de Mondeville Surgery (Wellcome) f. 153^v (MED) If ony cause go afore þe discrasynge þat is to come or ony oþir of þe forseid accidentis, it may be reducid to summe of þe causis of þe forseid accidentis.

a1500 tr. Thomas à Kempis De Imitatione Christi (Trin. Dublin) (1893) 139 (MED) Grace reduciþ all þinges to god, of whom þei welliþ oute groundely & originaly.

?1556 E. P. tr. T. Cranmer Confut. Verities ii. sig. G^v Al that he sayeth, he muste reduce it to the firste beginning of goddes aucthorite.

1612 F. Bacon Ess. (new ed.) 43 Reduce things to the first institution, and observe wherein and how they have degenerate.

1660 R. Coke Elements Power & Subjection 47 in Justice Vindicated All regular motions and actions may be reduced to one certain beginning.

1714 tr. I. Barrow Euclide's Elements (rev. ed.) Pref. Some principal Rules of practical Geometry, reducing them to their original Fountains.

1766 J. Cleland Way to Things by Words 87 He will find many words extremely difficult, and some impossible to reduce to their origin.

b. transitive. To interpret, analyse. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > meaning > explanation, exposition > expound, explain [verb (transitive)]

arecchec885

unloukOE

overrunOE

sutelec1000

trahtnec1000

unfolda1050

belayc1175

openc1175

onopena1200

accountc1300

undo?a1366

remenea1382

interpret1382

unwrap1387

exploitc1390

enlumine1393

declarec1400

expoundc1400

unplait?c1400

enperc1420

planea1425

clearc1440

exponec1440

to lay outc1440

to give (also carry) lightc1449

unwind1482

expose1483

reducea1500

manifest1530

explicate1531

explaina1535

unlock?1536

dilucidate1538

elucidate1538

illustrate1538

rechec1540

explicate1543

illucidate1545

enucleate1548

unsnarl1555

commonstrate1563

to lay forth1577

straighten1577

unbroid1577

untwist1577

decipherc1586

illuminate1586

enlighten1587

resolvec1592

cipher1594

eliquidate1596

to take (a person) with one1599

rivelc1600

ravel1604

unbowel1606

unmist1611

extricate1614

unbolta1616

untanglea1616

enode1623

unperplexa1631

perspicuate1634

explata1637

unravel1637

esclarea1639

clarify1642

unweave1642

detenebrate1646

dismystery1652

undecipher1654

unfork1654

unparadox1654

reflect1655

enodate1656

unmysterya1661

liquidatea1670

recognize1676

to clear upa1691

to throw sidelight on1726

to throw (also cast, shed) light on (also upon)1731

eclaircise1754

irradiate1864

unbraid1880

predigest1905

to get (something) straight1920

disambiguate1960

demystify1963

a1500 (?a1450) Gesta Romanorum (BL Add. 9066) (1879) 216 Or els it [sc. a fable] may be reduced on a nother maner.

†14.

a. transitive. To bring back to a place. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > space > place > placing or fact of being placed in (a) position > place or put in a position [verb (transitive)] > bring into a position

reduce?a1475

enter1563

land1649

?a1475 (?a1425) in tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1882) VIII. App. 488 (MED) Newe statutes were ordeynede..of the staple to be reducede from Mirbonrach to Caleys.

1515 in E. Beveridge Burgh Rec. Dunfermline (1917) 192 Gif thai turs ony cornis furtht of the said towne..fredome to raduce and inbring the samyn to the said burghe.

b. transitive. Scottish. To bring (coin) in again to the mint. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > trade and finance > money > coining > coin (money) [verb (transitive)] > specific processes

reduce1581

crenel1697

mill1724

crenate1868

to strike up1883

1581 Reg. Privy Council Scotl. 1st Ser. III. 463 The late silver cunyie..sould be reducit and brocht in agane, to be cunyeit of new.

15. Chiefly Law.

†a. transitive. To bring (an estate, title, property, etc.) to a person by way of acquisition. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > law > legal right > [verb (transitive)] > bring a right into possession > bring possession of right or thing to someone

reduce1491

1491 Act 7 Hen. VII c. 1. §1 The King..hath determyned hym self to passe..in to his Realme of Fraunce and to reduce the possession thereof..to hym and his heires Kinges of Englond.

1579 G. Fenton tr. F. Guicciardini Hist. Guicciardin xiv. 778 He was possessed with a vehement desire to recouer Parma and Plaisanca, and no lesse ambicion to reduce to him the state of Ferrara.

a1626 F. Bacon Elements Common Lawes (1630) 2 The admission of my Clerke, whereby the inheritance is reduced to mee, is the act of the Ordinary.

1682 A. Colquitt Mod. Rep. 17 If at the time of his death he shall have a Son, &c...it [sc. an estate] is reduced to him upon a Condition and Contingency.

1762 J. Salthouse Wood's Compl. Body Conveyancing II. 819 To reduce and revest the Inheritance of certain Lands and Tenements unto him and his Heirs.

b. transitive. To bring into (also to) possession. Chiefly U.S. in later use.

ΘΚΠ

society > law > legal possession > possess in law [verb (transitive)] > bring something into possession

reduce1766

society > law > legal right > [verb (transitive)] > bring a right into possession

reduce1830

1657 R. Watson Hist. Coll. Eccles. Affairs 130 Prayers and tears were not wont to be the onely arms of this new Church, and though they had no other at present, yet some course must be taken to reduce them into possession of such a power.

1766 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. II. 433 Unless he reduces them to possession, by exercising some act of ownership upon them, no property vests in him.

1830 T. B. Macaulay in Edinb. Rev. Jan. 542 The laws of all nations sanction, in certain cases, the transfer of rights not yet reduced into possession.

1884 Law Times Rep. 50 199/2 All that the husband has a right to do is to reduce such property into possession if he can.

1918 Virginia Law Reg. 4 442 He..became the owner of all her choses in action, provided he reduced them into possession, actual or constructive, during the coverture.

1983 Amer. Bar Found. Res. Jrnl. 8 482 Anyone with permission to enter land could take game, thus transforming it from the property of the landowner to the property of the person who reduced it to possession.

†16.

a. transitive. To take back (a reckoning). Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > possession > taking > take [verb (transitive)] > take again or back > take back

resume1404

to take again1474

revoke1526

reclaim1530

to fetch again1535

to take back1568

reducec1595

reassume1609

revicta1656

reassert1704

pull1985

c1595 Capt. Wyatt in G. F. Warner Voy. R. Dudley to W. Indies (1899) 57 The master himselfe was deceaved in the swifte gate of our shipp, and caused our Generall to reduce his reckninge back some 50 leagues.

b. transitive. To carry back to a more remote point in time. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > relative time > the past > [verb (transitive)] > carry or cast back into the past

reducea1620

antedate1633

to carry back1644

retroject1850

a1620 M. Fotherby Atheomastix (1622) ii. xii. §4. 342 But Plutarch himselfe reduceth it higher; not allowing of any mortall man to bee the first inuentor.

c. transitive. To assign (a person) to a more recent date. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > reckoning of time > chronology > arrange chronologically [verb (transitive)] > assign to a certain date > to a wrong, later, or earlier date

misdate1577

antedate1609

to pull back1610

redate1611

transtime1647

reduce1714

anachronize1831

predate1854

down-date1949

1714 T. Hearne Ductor Historicus (ed. 3) I. iii. 398 The Chaldæan Traditions carried the Age of the first Zoroaster very high,..but the Examinations made by Learned Men reduc'd him at most to the Age of Nimrod.

III. To convert, transform, render.

17.

a. To convert (a substance) into a different state or form.

(a) transitive. Chemistry and Metallurgy. To transform (a substance) into a different physical state or form, esp. a calx, by heat or some other chemical process; to decompose or refine (a compound) into a simpler substance. Frequently with to, into. Now chiefly historical.In many instances it is hard to tell to what extent the sense of transformation is modified by connotations of restoration, refinement, or diminution, as for example in ‘reducing’ a metal to a calx, formerly interpreted as driving off grosser constituents (though in fact it was usually what is now understood as oxidation), or in ‘reducing’ a mineral to a metal. Cf. reduction n. 2b, 11a. Cf. also sense 17b.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > chemistry > chemical reactions or processes > subject to chemical reactions or processes [verb (transitive)] > subject to named chemical reaction or process > subject to miscellaneous other processes

reduce?a1425

weaken1540

projecta1550

brown1570

spiritualize1593

colliquate1603

redisperse1621

imbibe1626

educe1651

to cant off1658

part1663

regalize1664

dint1669

roche1679

subtilizea1722

neutralize1744

develop1756

evolve1772

extricate1790

separate1805

unburn1815

leach1860

methylate1864

nitrate1872

nitre1880

sweeten1885

deflocculate1909

hybridize1959

?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 35 (MED) Whan þai [sc. apostemes] ar vnwisely infrigidate..þan þe subtile is resolued & þe grosse petrified, i. stony, & reduced in to melancolie.

a1475 Bk. Quinte Essence (1889) 9 In þe corusible ȝe schal fynde þe gold calcyned and reducid into erþe.

1559 P. Morwyng tr. C. Gesner Treasure of Euonymus 112 There is also an other way more subtill, to reduce euery element to his perfection or quintessence, but it must be presuposed that euery element be first iustified.

1590 W. Clever Flower of Phisicke 118 Such medicines are easily reduced, and manifested in their owne nature.

1605 T. Tymme tr. J. Du Chesne Pract. Chymicall & Hermeticall Physicke i. xiii. 56 The black feces..being reduced..into a calxe.

1681 R. Boyle New Exper. Icy Noctiluca 11 When after having so many Days kept this Glass stopt, at last it would no longer shine of it self, we supposed it to be reduced to the condition of a Phosphorus of the first sort.

1755 Philos. Trans. 1754 (Royal Soc.) 48 837 The oleose part of the spirit of wine..reducing the glass in some measure back again to its original antimonial state.

1785 Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 1 525 Steel is sometimes made by fusion of ore or pig-iron. The method is similar to that of reducing pig-iron to malleable iron.

1804 tr. P. F. Tingry Painter & Varnisher's Guide 301 Smalt, or vitreous oxide of cobalt, is saffer reduced to blue glass by the action of a violent fire.

1884 W. H. Greenwood Steel & Iron vi. 92 Since ferrous carbonates are reduced to the state of ferric oxide [etc.].

1991 Descant Summer 121 According to the alchemists, the base metals cannot be transmuted into silver or gold without being first reduced to their prima materia.

1994 W. R. Newman Gehennical Fire iv. 143 To the helmontian, two substances that had undergone transmutation could not be reduced into their original constituents.

(b) transitive. gen. To transform to (also into) powder, pulp, fragments, etc., by grinding, crushing, wearing down, or the like.

ΚΠ

1558 W. Ward tr. G. Ruscelli Secretes Alexis of Piemount vi. f. 111 Take Emerill, that men burnishe swordes or armoure with, and braye it very small..and temper it, or reduce it into dow or paste, with the saied Magistra.

1580 T. Newton Approoued Med. f. 80 The substaunce of it [sc. gold] reduced to powder, comforteth the heart.

1662 J. Davies tr. A. Olearius Voy. & Trav. J. Albert de Mandelslo 15 in Voy. & Trav. Ambassadors They reduce [Fr. reduisent] dates into a paste, and it serves them instead of bread.

1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant i. 39 Their Bodies being reduced into Ashes,..God shall create them a-new.

1725 R. Bradley Chomel's Dictionaire Œconomique at White-Honey-Charge Continue boiling till the Roots and Herbs be reduced to a Mash..throwing away the gross Substance.

1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 825 Reduce the tartrate and sugar to powder.

1837 W. Irving Adventures Capt. Bonneville III. i. 9 The cowish, also, or biscuit root, about the size of a walnut, which they reduce to a very palatable flour.

1915 J. Buchan Thirty-nine Steps iv. 91 He..flung half a dozen of his suits before me, for my own had been pretty well reduced to rags.

1927 M. H. Avram Rayon Industry 259 In this operation..the cellulose is reduced to very finely divided particles called crumbs.

1945 J. F. Lockwood Flour Milling xvii. 283 The wheat could..be rapidly and roughly reduced to flour by setting the two stones very close together.

1994 Amer. Spectator Sept. 45/1 Then came more grunting and squashing and pulping until the onions were reduced to a mushy, dirty-brown mixture.

ΘΚΠ

the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > breaking up land > break up land [verb (transitive)] > break up clods

clodc1420

clot1483

reduce1763

1763 Museum Rusticum (1764) 1 144 The land cannot be stirred too deep:..the more the earth is reduced the more nourishment will it afford.

1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 604 It is the custom..to reduce the cloddy surface well by means of harrowing.

1848 Amer. Farmer Nov. 140/2 Land intended for wheat..should be so prepared by harrowing, dragging, and rolling, as to thoroughly reduce and pulverize all clods.

1891 W. J. Malden Tillage iii. 16 The teams can be set to work to reduce the soil finely, so that the couch will be set free from the dirt.

1976 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 20 Mar. 12/4 Let it [sc. soil] stand..until it is nice and crumbly.., before you spade it up and start raking it down to reduce clods.

2002 Arable Farming (Nexis) 16 Feb. s14 Reduce clods, depress stones and firm loose, puffy seedbeds by rolling.

b. transitive. Chemistry and Metallurgy. To convert (ore, calx, etc.) into metal, esp. by smelting; to smelt (a metal). Cf. reduction n. 11b.In later use passing into sense 17c.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > chemistry > chemical reactions or processes > undergo chemical reactions or processes [verb] > undergo chemical reactions or processes (named) > undergo or subject to reduction

reduce1666

society > occupation and work > industry > working with specific materials > working with metal > work with metal [verb (transitive)] > extract from ore > smelt

try13..

smelt1543

run1650

reduce1666

eliquate1759

resmelt1804

beneficiate1873

1666 R. Boyle Origine Formes & Qualities Prœmial Disc. sig. A6 Melting the Oares to reduce them into perfect metal.

1741 tr. J. A. Cramer Elements Art of assaying Metals i. 51 When the refractory Calx of Iron is to be reduced by a great and long lasting Fire.

1758 A. Reid tr. P. J. Macquer Elements Theory & Pract. Chym. I. 361 When the ore of an Iron mine is found difficult to reduce, it is usually neglected even though it be rich.

1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 687 By the year 1788, several attempts had been made to reduce iron ore with coaked coal.

1866 J. E. T. Rogers Hist. Agric. & Prices I. xxiii. 599 In the infancy of the metallurgic arts lead was much more easily reduced than iron.

1922 T. M. Lowry Inorg. Chem. xxxiv. 657 The preparation of metals such as chromium, which cannot be reduced from their ores by means of carbon.

1955 Sci. News Let. 7 May 297/2 Using heats as high as 3,100 degrees Fahrenheit, quartzite rock is reduced with coke and charcoal.

1991 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 23 June 45 The Chinese had been using a hearth and bellows furnace to heat charcoal to such a temperature that nickel sulphite ore was reduced to an alloy called white copper or ‘pei tung’.

c. transitive. Chemistry. To cause to undergo reduction (reduction n. 11c); to lower the proportion of oxygen in or increase the proportion of hydrogen in (a compound). In extended use: to convert (an atom or element) to a lower oxidation state, to add electrons to (an atom, molecule, etc.). Also intransitive: to undergo reduction. Cf. oxidize v. 1a.Not always distinguishable from the metallurgical sense ( 17b), since to convert an oxide ore to the metal involves subjecting it to chemical reduction.

ΘΚΠ

reduce1800

1789 R. Kerr tr. A. Lavoisier Elements Chem. 159 All those [metallic substances] which have a stronger affinity to oxygen, than charcoal possesses, are incapable of being reduced to the metallic state.]

1800 Philos. Mag. 7 343 Hydrogen gas, when heated, or in its nascent state, reduces metallic oxyds.

1834 Penny Cycl. II. 106/2 When antimonic acid is subjected to a strong red heat, it loses oxygen and is reduced to antimonious acid.

1873 C. H. Ralfe Outl. Physiol. Chem. 202 Uric acid also has the power of reducing cupric sulphate.

1890 W. Jago Inorg. Chem. iii. 48 There are other examples of reduction in which the bodies are simply reduced to a lower stage of oxidation.

1935 J. W. Mellor Comprehensive Treat. Inorg. & Theoret. Chem. XIV. lxvii. 608 Cobaltic fluoride in hydrogen at 200°..is reduced to cobaltous fluoride.

1971 Nature 1 Jan. 13/1 The resulting electrons are used to reduce carbon dioxide to carbohydrate.

1998 E. Cooney et al. in D. L. Ford Toxicity Reduction v. 169 Under mildly reducing conditions..ferric oxide reduces to ferrous oxide.

2000 M. Clugston & R. Flemming Adv. Chem. xiii. 218 Iodine is a suitable oxidant to accept the electrons, itself being reduced to iodide ions.

18.

(a) transitive. To bring under or organize into (esp. a specified number of) classes, categories, heads, etc. Also with to (formerly †in).In some cases passing into sense 2.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > order > put in (proper) order [verb (transitive)] > reduce to order > give structure to or organize

edifya1340

beset1413

reduce?a1425

institutea1538

compile1596

to deraign battle1596

modelize1600

skillc1610

organize1632

formalize1646

model1652

modulize1656

structure1664

economize1691

regiment1698

structurize1912

pattern1967

?a1425 MS Hunterian 95 f. 104 (MED) Summe autours reducen þe cure of enpostumes in two manere diuiciouns, ffor þei sette one maner cure of alle hote enpostumes & anoþer cure of alle colde enpostumes.

a1513 J. Irland Meroure of Wyssdome (1965) II. 62 And to that artikle is reducit the faith of the sacramentis of halykyrk.

1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. DDDvi^v All the counselles of our lorde Iesu Christe may be reduced to these .ix.

1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) I. 8/1 The said Ezechias also reduced y^e Priestes and Leuites into their orders.

1612 J. Brinsley Ludus Lit. xxi. 248 The way might be more compendious by the rootes reduced to Classes.

1647 T. May Hist. Parl. Pref. sig. A3 I will only professe to follow that one Rule, Truth, to which all the rest..may be reduced.

1653 H. Phillippes Purchasers Pattern 1 Many things..may all be reduced to these three generall heads.

1713 R. Steele Englishman No. 7. 43 Those who set up for Criticks in Poetry..may be reduced to two Classes.

1718 Free-thinker No. 52. 1 These Presages..may be reduced under Seven Principal Denominations.

1800 T. T. Biddulph Hezekiah’s Charge to Congregation 21 The multiplied sacrifices and offerings..may all, though variously denominated, be reduced to two classes.

1829 A. Jamieson Dict. Mech. Sci. II. 656/1 These [sc. meteors] may be reduced under three classes, viz. fire balls, falling or shooting stars, and ignes fatui.

1885 Times 16 Sept. 6/6 The advantages of sliding scales as regulating wages might be reduced to two heads.

1928 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 34 219 The plurality of ‘social dimensions’..can for the sake of simplification be reduced into two principal classes: the vertical and the horizontal.

2001 India Business Insight (Nexis) 11 June Costs could be reduced under three heads, depreciation, manpower and electrical expenses.

(b) transitive. Usually with to, into. To assign or refer (something) to a particular class. Now rare.

ΚΠ

1653 T. Urquhart Logopandecteision i. 16 To declare what part of speech it is; or if a Noun, unto what predicament or class it is to be reduced.

1697 J. Potter Archæologiæ Græcæ I. ii. xiv. 287 Hither are to be reduc'd some other ways of Divination, by things made use of at Sacrifices.

1727 S. Switzer Pract. Gardiner iv. xxxix. 205 Of kin to the onion, is porrum, the leek... And unto the same class also may be reduced allium, the garlick.

1798 T. Brown Observ. Zoonomia ii. 69 There are many phenomena of life, which cannot be reduced to any of the four classes of sensorial motions.

1851 R. G. Latham Man & his Migrations iv. 116 Their language has been reduced to no class, and their peculiar habits place them in strong contrast with most other South Americans.

1920 S. Alexander Space, Time & Deity II. iii. i. 7 Such processes though they may be reduced to the class of vital processes are so distinct from the remainder of the class that they hold a privileged position in it.

b. transitive. To subject to (formerly †into) an arrangement, order, or rule; to bring to order.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > order > put in (proper) order [verb (transitive)] > reduce to order

reduce1567

methodizea1586

correct1594

method1607

1567 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure II. xv. f. 96^v Y^e Roman Campe, that then was in great disorder. Which with greate diligence hee reassembled, and reduced the same to order.

1666 S. Pepys Diary 25 Dec. (1972) VII. 421 Reducing the names of all my books to an Alphabet.

1729 Bp. J. Butler Serm. Self-deceit in Wks. (1874) II. 125 A great part..of the intercourse amongst mankind, cannot be reduced to fixed determinate rules.

1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters i. Ded. The rules..were..reduced to the just order in which they now stand.

1837 W. Whewell Hist. Inductive Sci. I. 217 When one set of anomalies had been discovered and reduced to rule.

1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) IV. 21 The infinite would be no longer infinite, if limited or reduced to measure.

1958 F. E. Sparshott Enq. Goodnesss ii. 31 To discover how far existing notions about goodness and badness..can be reduced to some kind of system and shown to conform to general principles.

1962 A. J. M. Milne Social Philos. Eng. Idealism i. 21 A theory in terms of which the manifold variety of things and events in the world are observed, classified, correlated and reduced to order and relative simplicity.

1992 J. M. Kelly Short Hist. Western Legal Theory vii. 262 Efforts..to reduce to order a heterogeneous civil law, inherited with a bewildering penumbra of local custom and Roman accretions from the Middle Ages.

†c. transitive. Without construction: to assign to the appropriate class or classes; to classify, categorize; to bring into proper order. Obsolete.

ΚΠ

1594 J. Smythe Certen Instr. Militarie 98 Such great squadrons as I haue before described, reduced, and formed.

1668 Bp. J. Wilkins Ess. Real Char. Ep. Ded. sig. a^v The species of Natural bodies..if they were (so far as they are yet known and discovered) distinctly reduced and described.

1692 J. Ray in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eminent Literary Men (1843) (Camden) 203 He hath abundance of Jamaica plants, which if in your Catalogue it is very difficult to reduce them, especially his Felices.

19. transitive. With to (formerly †into). To convert or transform so as to have a certain form or character. Also reflexive.

ΘΚΠ

the world > existence and causation > causation > [verb (transitive)] > bring (a person or thing) into a state or condition > reduce to a state or condition

reduce?a1425

reduct1548

perduce1563

revoke1605

the world > time > change > change to something else, transformation > transform [verb (transitive)] > in character or function

reduce?a1425

convert1557

resolve?a1560

transnature1567

transnaturalize1631

transmutate1632

transdignify1655

process1881

denaturate1895

denature1907

?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 97 If sich cancrose vlcerez be not cured wiþ alum water..it pleseþ..þat þai be cauterized... And with þat her rounde forme..be reduced to alonge.

1558 W. Bullein Govt. Healthe (title page) Reduced into the forme of a Dialogue, for the better vnderstanding of thunlearned.

1590 J. Smythe Certain Disc. Weapons 12 Whilest the Piquers and other weapons doo reduce themselues into forme vnder their Ensignes.

a1593 C. Marlowe Massacre at Paris (c1600) sig. B3^v I knew the Organon to be confusde, And I reduc'd it into better forme.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 61 Cumin reduced into the form of trochisks or nose-tents, put vp into the nosthrils, stancheth bloud.

1639 J. Woodall Surgeons Mate (rev. ed.) Pref. sig. A6^v Galen..reduced the Science [sc. medicine] into a more perfect Art.

1662 J. Davies tr. A. Olearius Voy. & Trav. Ambassadors 216 The Ambassador ordered me to reduce Persia and Turkie into one Map.

a1693 A. Wood Hist. & Antiq. Univ. Oxf. (1786) 56 They began..to pull down their buildings, which stood without any method, and to reduce them..into a quadrangular pile.

1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iv. i. 16 A second Word, much harder to be pronounced; but reducing it to the English Orthography, may be spelt thus, Houyhnhnm.

1763 Brit. Mag. 4 103 A gentleman..produced a circular piece of ice..which he reduced to a lentile form.

1836 H. Rogers Life J. Howe ii. 26 Nevertheless, it may be very useful..to attempt to reduce it to such a form.

1859 J. Tomes Syst. Dental Surg. 344 The rose-head is very serviceable in reducing to a cylindrical form the ragged opening of a small cavity.

1881 Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining Engineers 1880–1 9 132 Finishing-rolls, the rolls of a train which receive the bar from the roughing-rolls, and reduce it to its finished shape.

1947 T. J. Reynolds & L. E. Kent Structural Steelwork (ed. 8) iii. 29 The mill shown in the foreground..has reduced the steel to the form of a plate.

1972 Amer. Hist. Rev. 77 1465/2 It seems to consist at times of disintegrated notes that were never reduced to a comprehensible form.

2007 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 21 Apr. 37 Once each sprawling transcript was reduced to a manageable shape it was submitted to the writer.

20.

†a. transitive. To put (a text, etc.) into another language; to translate, render. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > meaning > explanation, exposition > translation > translate [verb (transitive)]

setc888

wendeOE

turnc1175

writec1275

drawa1325

translatea1375

expound1377

takea1382

interpret1382

transpose1390

remue?a1400

renderc1400

put?a1425

to draw outa1450

reducec1450

compile1483

redige?1517

make1529

traducea1533

traduct1534

converta1538

do1561

to set out1597

transcribe1639

throw1652

metaphrase1868

versionize1874

c1450 (c1440) S. Scrope in tr. C. de Pisan Epist. of Othea (Longleat) (1904) 2 I..take vpon me..to translate ovte off Frenche tong..and to reduce into owre modyr tong a Book off Knyghthode.

1483 W. Caxton in tr. A. Chartier Curial sig. j At whos Instance & requeste I haue reduced it in to Englyssh.

1513 G. Douglas in tr. Virgil Æneid i. Prol. 404 Lo he reprevis..Ay word by word to reduce ony thing.

a1533 Ld. Berners tr. A. de Guevara Golden Bk. M. Aurelius (1546) sig. Oo.vij The translatours, that haue laboryously reduced this treatyce out of Greke into Latin.

1581 W. Lambarde Eirenarcha i. i. 4 Bracton..reduced the body of our law into Latine.

1609 J. Dowland in tr. A. Ornithoparcus Micrologus Ep. Ded. To present this Father of Musicke Ornithoparchus to your worthyest Patronage, whose approoued Workes in my trauailes..I haue reduced into our English Language.

1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. xii. 442/1 All which variety of Phisical names may be reduced into English termes.

1778 T. Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry II. xv. 364 He reduced a dialogue of Lucian into English verse, much after the manner of an interlude.

1845 T. Corser in R. James Iter Lancastrense Notes 45 Robert of Shrewsbury's Life of St. Wenefrede was translated or ‘reduced’ into English by William Caxton.

(a) transitive. To put into or commit to writing. Formerly also with †by. Chiefly Law in later use.

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > writing > [verb (transitive)] > set down in writing

adighteOE

to set on writea900

dightc1000

writeOE

brevea1225

layc1330

indite1340

take1418

annote1449

printa1450

scribe1465

redact?a1475

reduce1485

letter1504

recite1523

to commit to writing (also paper)1529

pen1530

reduce?1533

token up1535

scripture1540

titulea1550

to set down1562

quote1573

to put down1574

paper1594

to write down1594

apprehend1611

fix1630

exarate1656

depose1668

put1910

1485 W. Caxton tr. Thystorye & Lyf Charles the Grete sig. aij/1 Al thynges that ben reduced by wrytyng ben wryton to our doctryne.

1566 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure I. v. f. 13 Certaine officers wer appoincted..with soueraigne aucthoritie and power, to reduce the same [sc. laws] into writyng.

1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Bbb ^v This parte of knowledge we doe reporte also as deficient: not but that it is practised too much, but it hath not beene reduced to writinge.

1659 P. Heylyn Examen Historicum i. 230 Why was not the Protestation reduced into writing?

1712 J. Swift Proposal for Eng. Tongue 23 All which reduced to Writing would entirely confound Orthography.

1747 in Colonial Rec. Pennsylvania (1851) V. 78 Having reduc'd into writing the Transaction..touching the Delivery of the three Negroes.

1875 H. J. S. Maine Lect. Early Hist. Inst. i. 10 A small body of Aryan customs reduced to writing in the fifth century b.c.

1942 D. O. Bowman Public Control Labor Relations i. 50 There was no rule promulgated that any agreement reached had to be reduced to writing.

1992 D. McClean Internat. Judicial Assistance iii. 75 The foreign court is asked to notify the English court or any appointed agents of the parties of the date and place of the examination, and to reduce the evidence into writing.

†(b) transitive. Without construction: to set down or record in writing. Also: to put down or draw in a map. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > writing > [verb (transitive)] > set down in writing

adighteOE

to set on writea900

dightc1000

writeOE

brevea1225

layc1330

indite1340

take1418

annote1449

printa1450

scribe1465

redact?a1475

reduce1485

letter1504

recite1523

to commit to writing (also paper)1529

pen1530

reduce?1533

token up1535

scripture1540

titulea1550

to set down1562

quote1573

to put down1574

paper1594

to write down1594

apprehend1611

fix1630

exarate1656

depose1668

put1910

the world > the earth > earth sciences > geography > map-making > [verb (intransitive)]

reduce?1533

?1533 G. Du Wes Introductorie for to lerne Frenche sig. Aiv To reduce and to put by writtynge the maner how I haue proceded.

1576 A. Fleming tr. Cicero in Panoplie Epist. 46 He..being nowe inflamed with the admiration of your martiall exploites,..is very desireous, to reduce them in a Chronicle.

1603 G. Owen Descr. Penbrokshire (1891) i. 5 Amonge diuerse other thinges of the xiii Sheres of Wales reduced according to arte.

21. In Mathematics and numerical contexts.

a. transitive. To express (a number or quantity) in terms of another denomination or unit. Chiefly with to or into. Cf. reduction n. 9a.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > change a number or quantity [verb (transitive)] > from one denomination to another

reduce1539

convert1594

1539 J. Husee Let. 14 Nov. in Lisle Papers (P.R.O.: SP 3/4) f. 89 Tyl suche tyme as the commyssioneres hathe made a rentall perfyt and redywcyd the same in sterlinge monye.

1594 T. Blundeville Exercises i. xxvii. f. 34^v Then in like order reduce your Diuisor into the smallest Fraction, and you shall find the totall summe.

a1690 S. Jeake Λογιστικηλογία (1696) 156 To reduce the Denominations of Measure, Weight,..&c. of one Kind or Countrey to another.

1766 Compl. Farmer at Surveying If the content to be reduced, be cast up into acres, roods, and perches, reduce all into perches, and then in other respects work as before.

1812 J. Smyth Pract. of Customs (1821) 9 Mogadore Tare is commonly reduced to British pounds by adding 20 per cent...to the Invoice weight.

1879 Manufacturer & Builder Jan. 3/2 The figures have been reduced from kilograms to pounds on the basis that 1 kilogram is 2 pounds, which is slightly erroneous.

1927–9 H. Wheeler Waverley Children's Dict. VI. 3591/1 We reduce pounds to shillings by multiplying them by twenty.

1992 J. Grant Compl. Canvasworker's Guide (ed. 2) ii. 14 The number of panels, times the width of each one less a ½-inch seam allowance, divided by 12 to reduce the figure to feet rather than inches.

b. transitive. With to. To convert (a fraction) into a different form, esp. one with the lowest possible values of numerator and denominator. Cf. reduction n. 9b.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > number > ratio or proportion > fraction > reduce fraction [verb (transitive)]

reduce1557

abbreviate1562

1557 R. Record Whetstone of Witte sig. Ai^v I perceive, you call it a parte, when the numerator in the fraction (reduced to the smalleste) is an unitie.

1678 J. Hawkins Cocker's Arithm. xix. 248 Reduce a fraction to its lowest terms at the first work.

1705 E. Scarburgh Eng. Euclide 180 (note) In all Superparticulars the Numerator is, or may ever be reduced to an Unite.

1823 J. Mitchell Dict. Math. & Physical Sci. 419/2 Reduce the compound quantity to its lowest denomination, and the whole integer to the same denomination.

1914 E. Oberg Arithm. Simplified (‘Machinery’ Ref. Bk. No. 137) iv. 42 The fraction on either side of the equal sign reduced to its lowest terms is called the ratio of the proportion.

2001 N.Y. Times 31 May b8/1 To add fractions, students taught by the constructivist approach might fold paper strips rather than reduce the numbers to the lowest common denominator.

c. transitive. To change (a quantity, figure, etc.) to (also into) a different form, esp. for convenience or to facilitate comparison with others. Also intransitive (rare).

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > change a number or quantity [verb (transitive)] > into another form

reduce1579

1579 L. Digges & T. Digges Stratioticos i. xii. 21 To reduce, is to bring Integers into Fractions or contrarie.

1667 H. Phillippes Purchasers Pattern (ed. 5) i. To Rdr. sig. A5 There will be 18 rod of Brick-work in the Wall, which may all be reduced to a brick and an half thick.

1669 S. Sturmy Mariners Mag. i. ii. 43 To reduce a Trapezia into a Triangle.

1833 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Cottage Archit. §88 In estimating the price of brick-work in Britain, the quantity..is always reduced to walls of one and a half brick in thickness.

1967 C. Potok Chosen iii. xiii. 225 I showed him how to set up his graphs, how to utilize the tables in his textbook, and how to reduce experimental findings to mathematical formulas.

1992 Sci. Amer. Apr. 110/3 Variables may be reduced to values such as plus, minus or zero to show whether a physical force such as the torque from a copier motor is increasing, decreasing or static.

d. transitive. With to. To simplify (a mathematical expression) by means such as the rearrangement of terms, the substitution of one quantity for another, or the making an assumption or approximation. Cf. reduced adj. 1a, reduction n. 9c.

ΚΠ

1702 J. Raphson Math. Dict. Parabolism, is the Division of the Terms of an Equation by the known Quantity..that is involved or multiplied into the first Term. Thus the following Equation axx + 2abx = bcc will be reduced to this xx + 2bx = ^bcc/ _a.

1743 W. Emerson Doctr. Fluxions 82 The given Fluxion may be reduced to another Expression.

1827 O. Gregory Hutton's Course Math. (ed. 9) I. 256 Cubic equations..may usually be reduced to quadratics, by extermination.

1947 S. A. Stigant Mod. Electr. Engin. Math. iv. 61 The solution becomes easier if the original matrix is first partitioned and thereby reduced to another equivalent matrix of lower order.

1990 Q. Jrnl. Mech. & Appl. Math. 43 473 The present problem can be reduced to the corresponding incompressible one by use of the Dorodnitsyn–Howarth transformation.

†e. transitive. With to. To resolve by analysis. Obsolete. rare.

ΚΠ

1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps ii. xxix. 399 I shall now endeavour to reduce the ripples to their mechanical elements.

22. transitive. Logic. To bring (a syllogism or proposition) into a different but equivalent form, spec. to one of the moods of the first figure; to subject to reduction (reduction n. 10a).

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > logical syllogism > deduce by syllogism [verb (transitive)] > reduce or bring into a different form

reduce1728

?1568 [implied in: L. Evans Abridgem. Logique sig. B.vij The turning of propositions..serueth for the euident opening of them,..and for the reducing of the seconde, and thirde figure into the first. (at reducing n.)].

1573 R. Lever Arte of Reason ii. vi. 112 M.p.s.c. shewe how the vnperfecte seates [sc. figures] must be reduced.

1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Oo2 The Reduction to be of two kindes Direct, and Inuerted; the one when the Proposition is reduced to the Principle..: the other when the contradictorie of the Proposition is reduced to the contradictorie of the Principles.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Reduction A Conversion of one or both the Premisses [of a syllogism], or..a Transposition thereof; as when Camestres is reduced to Celarent.

1827 R. Whately Elem. Logic (ed. 2) ii. 101 All arguments may be somehow or other brought into some one of these four Moods [sc. in the first figure]; and a Syllogism is, in that case, said to be reduced.

1864 F. C. Bowen Treat. Logic vii. 195 The motives for reducing the three lower Figures to the First.

1906 J. N. Keynes Stud. & Exerc. Formal Logic (ed. 4) iii. iii. 320 The initial letters in the case of figures 2, 3, 4 shew to which of the moods of figure 1 the given mood is to be reduced.

1994 J. Lameer Al-Fārābī & Aristotelian Syllogistics iv. 123 Felapton..had already been proved by reducing this syllogism to Ferio in the first figure.

†23. transitive. To render (land) fit for cultivation. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > reclamation > reclaim [verb (transitive)]

ina1387

reclaim1440

improve1523

win1531

mitigate1601

reform1607

stuba1650

regain1652

redeem1671

reduce1726

to bring to1814

to bring in1860

to break in1891

green1967

1536–7 in Sc. Hist. Rev. 7 358 Our landis of Drigrange..war reducit furth of wod and forrest to telit landis.

1620 G. Markham Farwell to Husbandry x. 69 The bettering and inriching of these barren earths, and reducing them to good pasture or medow.]

1726 J. Laurence New Syst. Agric. i. iv. 58 It is a Work of the greatest Difficulty..to reduce Land beggared and worn out with indiscreet and avaritious Ploughing.

1762 J. Mills New Syst. Pract. Husbandry I. 151 Another method of reducing barren boggy land, in Ireland, is by laying upon it a little dung or straw, and covering this with shells.

1852 Plough, Loom, & Anvil Apr. 634 When first cleared, the crop must be corn or potatoes, to reduce the soil.

24.

a. intransitive. With to. To admit of being viewed or expressed in another (usually simpler) form; to come down to.

ΚΠ

1878 Analyst 5 6 The same may be said respecting a condition employed by another writer... The condition reduces to this, that when a law of mortality or other similar series has been adjusted.., the mean..ought to be [etc.].

1885 Pall Mall Gaz. 25 June 4/2 Diseased he was, and of a harsh Northern strain, but all the carping reduces at last to this.

1924 Times Lit. Suppl. 6 Nov. 704/2 His success or failure hangs..on the degree of intensity with which he fuses his material—and perhaps the old distinction between fancy and imagination reduces in the end to that.

1953 J. B. Carroll Study of Lang. iii. 78 The problem of describing verbal behaviour..reduces to the problem of describing the strengths..of verbal responses under various stimulus conditions.

1978 Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. Sept. 964/1 Over time those claims reduce to nothing more than rationalizations to maintain power.

2000 Econ. & Philos. 16 135 For Simon..substantive rationality reduces to optimization theory, and the study of procedural rationality reduces to the study of human cognitive processes.

b. intransitive. Mathematics. To admit of simplification to by reduction (reduction n. 9c), to simplify to.

ΚΠ

1901 W. J. Milne Acad. Algebra 104 If a rational integral expression containing x reduces to zero when a is substituted for x, it is exactly divisible by x − a.

1956 E. H. Hutten Lang. Mod. Physics iii. 109 The equations of motion for a material particle as given by the general theory reduce to the equations of motion of Newton, when we consider the simplest case of a Euclidean, limited, region of space.

2004 K. Nakamura & T. Harayama Quantum Chaos & Quantum Dots x. 180 f_n is governed by the master equation ^df_n/ _dt = (− 2f_n + f_{n + 1} + f_{n − 1})R, which, in the continuum limit, reduces to the diffusion equation in energy space.

IV. To bring down; to constrain, restrict.

25.

a. transitive. To bring to (formerly †in, †into, †under) order, obedience, reason, etc., by constraint or compulsion.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > subjection > subjecting or subjugation > subject [verb (transitive)] > make obedient

master?c1225

atame1340

tamec1384

reclaima1393

reducec1475

subduea1525

range1587

to bring ina1599

tawne1606

entamea1616

puppify1660

to bring to1747

c1475 tr. A. Chartier Quadrilogue (Univ. Coll. Oxf.) (1974) 157 The citee was redued [read reduced; a1500 Rawl. yolden; Fr. reduitte] in his subieccion.

1490 W. Caxton tr. Eneydos xxii. 78 The resolucion..of his courage is euer reduced to thobeyssaunce of y^e goddes.

1541 Act 33 Hen. VIII c. 9 §2 The subiectes therof..subdued and redused diuers and many regions and countreis to their due obeisance.

1550 T. Nicolls tr. Thucydides Hist. Peloponnesian War iii. vi. f. lxxix^v They..that rebelled againste vs in tymes paste, after that we had reduced them to oure subiection.

1579 G. Fenton tr. F. Guicciardini Hist. Guicciardin xv. 404 Vppon these beginnings they consulted afterwardes to reduce Pisa vnder thobedience of the Florentins.

1641 P. Heylyn Ἡρωολογια Anglorvm 12 Those inferiour petite Kings, being, in tract of time worne out, and almost all the South reduced under the immediate command of the Roman Empire.

1654 J. Bramhall Just Vindic. Church of Eng. i. 5 Whensoever they have occasion to reduce the Pope to reason.

1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant i. 241 The King of Æthiopia..marched out against them [sc. the Jews], reduced them to duty.

a1727 I. Newton Chronol. Anc. Kingdoms Amended (1728) ii. 217 Sesostris..reduced Judæa into servitude.

1769 E. Burke Observ. Late State Nation 73 Nothing..but the sending a very strong military, backed by a very strong naval force, would reduce the seditious to obedience.

1841–8 F. Myers Catholic Thoughts II. iv. §46. 412 Nor can any one [church]..reduce all the others to subjection.

1883 J. A. Froude Short Stud. 4th Ser. i. x. 108 The clergy could not be allowed to reduce Crown and barons into entire submission to their own pleasure.

1903 T. C. Dawson S. Amer. Republics (1906) I. 63 The first Spaniards that penetrated south from the Bolivian plateau failed to reduce them [sc. the Calchaquies] to submission.

1963 A. Baraka Blues People i. 8 Cortez and his conquistadores..had..reduced to abject slavery the ‘heathen’ race of Montezuma.

1990 Bull. Hispanic Stud. 67 394 Before the play is concluded he succeeds in replenishing the royal exchequer and reducing his grandees to due obedience.

†b. transitive. To compel or require to give obedience or adherence to; to make subject to a person, a person's power, etc. Similarly with into, under. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > subjection > subjecting or subjugation > subject [verb (transitive)]

wieldOE

i-weldeOE

onwaldOE

overwieldlOE

amaistera1250

underlaya1300

daunt1303

underbringc1320

yoke?c1335

undercasta1340

afaitec1350

faite1362

subjecta1382

to make subjectc1384

distraina1400

underlouta1400

underthewa1400

underset1422

subjectc1460

subjuge?1473

submise?1473

dompt1480

suppedit?1483

to keep under1486

abandon1487

bandon?a1500

suppeditatec1545

to bring under1563

reduce1569

assubject1579

overpower1597

envassal1606

assubjugate1609

vassal1612

subact1619

vassalize1647

vassalate1659

to school down1818

to ride herd on (also over)1895

1569 T. Stocker tr. Diodorus Siculus Hist. Successors Alexander ii. xxii. 73/2 He reduced likewise..all the townes and cities of the Messenians to him.

1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene iii. iii. sig. Ee2^v He the six Islands, comprouinciall In auncient times vnto great Britainee, Shall to the same reduce.

1628 Abp. J. Williams Serm. 6 Apr. 34 When shall I see the day, when all my Affections reduc't vnder reason, I may pronounce this happy word, Vici, I haue ouercome them.

1655 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. I. i. 34 Solon perswaded also the Athenians to reduce into their power the Thracian Chersonesus.

1737 W. Whiston tr. Josephus Antiq. Jews vi. ix, in tr. Josephus Genuine Wks. 174 God..will reduce him under my power.

1833 Tracts for Times No. 15. 4 Queen Mary..reduced our Church again under the Bishop of Rome.

1876 W. F. Skene Celtic Scotl. I. i. iii. 152 We have the testimony of Prosper Aquitanus..that in 441 the British provinces had already been reduced under the power of the Saxons.

c. transitive. Without construction: to compel to submit or surrender; to bring (a person) under control or authority; to bring (a place) into subjection; to subdue, subjugate, pacify. Now rare.Formerly also: †to reclaim or domesticate (an animal) (obsolete).

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > victory > make victorious [verb (transitive)] > bring into subjection

subduea1387

subjugate1447

suppressc1450

quash1556

repress1582

reduce1605

the world > action or operation > prosperity > success > mastery or superiority > have or gain mastery or superiority over [verb (transitive)] > overcome or defeat

shendc893

overwinOE

overheaveOE

mate?c1225

to say checkmatea1346

vanquishc1366

stightlea1375

outrayc1390

to put undera1393

forbeat1393

to shave (a person's) beardc1412

to put to (also at, unto) the (also one's) worsec1425

adawc1440

supprisec1440

to knock downc1450

to put to the worsta1475

waurc1475

convanquish1483

to put out1485

trima1529

convince1548

foil1548

whip1571

evict1596

superate1598

reduce1605

convict1607

defail1608

cast1610

banga1616

evince1620

worst1646

conquer1655

cuffa1657

trounce1657

to ride down1670

outdo1677

routa1704

lurcha1716

fling1790

bowl1793

lick1800

beat1801

mill1810

to row (someone) up Salt River1828

defeat1830

sack1830

skunk1832

whop1836

pip1838

throw1850

to clean out1858

take1864

wallop1865

to sock it to1877

whack1877

to clean up1888

to beat out1893

to see off1919

to lower the boom on1920

tonk1926

clobber1944

ace1950

to run into the ground1955

1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. ii. ii. 404 Reducing with industrious care, The Flocks and Droues couer'd with wooll and haire.

1612 J. Davies Discouerie Causes Ireland 11 The late King of Spaine could sooner win the Kingdome of Portugall, then reduce the States of the Low-Countries.

a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1666 (1955) III. 462 The clamor & perill..made the whole Court amaz'd at it, & they did with..greate difficulty reduce & apease the people.

1700 M. Prior Carmen Sæculare 2 Mars's Son reduc'd the trembling Swains.

1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 306 If they were reduc'd, they should be brought to the Gallows.

1780 W. Coxe Acct. Russ. Discov. 187 A body of troops whom he sent before him to reduce the fortress found it quite deserted.

a1842 T. Arnold Hist. Rome (1846) II. xxxv. 403 Ptolemy reduced the several petty kings of the island, and made himself master of it.

1865 E. B. Tylor Res. Early Hist. Mankind iii. 35 Those of the natives who have but lately been reduced.

1867 S. Smiles Huguenots Eng. & Ireland vii. 152 The young king set out with his army to reduce the revolted towns.

a1894 R. L. Stevenson In South Seas (1896) iv. vii. 364 Success attended him; the islands were reduced, and Teñkoruti returned to his own government.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 91/2 As has been shown, he also reduced the kingdom of Shoa, and took Ankober, the capital.

d. transitive. With infinitive. To constrain, compel, oblige (a person) to do something. In later use only with adverse circumstances (as poverty, desperation, etc.) as subject, and frequently in passive.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > possession > poverty > be or become impoverished [verb (passive)] > be compelled by want (to do something)

reduce1622

the world > action or operation > difficulty > of difficulty: beset (a person) [verb (transitive)] > put (a person) in difficulty > reduce to straits > be reduced to spec.

reduce1622

society > authority > subjection > obedience > compulsion > compel [verb (transitive)] > to do something

holdc1275

piltc1275

constraina1340

strength1340

distrainc1374

compelc1380

makec1395

distressa1400

stressa1400

art?1406

putc1450

coerce1475

cohert1475

enforce1509

perforce1509

forcec1540

violent?1551

press1600

necessitate1601

rack1602

restrain1621

reduce1622

oblige1632

necessiate1709

1622 F. Bacon Hist. Raigne Henry VII 14 To reduce Aliens, being made Denizens, to pay strangers Customes.

a1645 W. Browne tr. M. Le Roy Hist. Polexander (1647) ii. i. 155 I lived in that house as I did at Fez; that is, reduced to see none but my slaves, and to be often persecuted by mine enemy.

1693 J. Dryden tr. Juvenal in J. Dryden et al. tr. Juvenal Satires i. 9 The Poor Patrician is reduc'd to keep In Melancholly Walks a Grazier's Sheep.

1710 H. Prideaux Orig. & Right Tithes iii. 156 Having reduced them to receive Christianity, he imposed the same Law upon them.

1743 H. Walpole Let. 4 May (1955) XVIII. 225 Poor creature! he was reduced..to borrow five guineas of Sir Francis Dashwood.

1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones II. v. xi. 208 A Blow..reduced him to measure his Length on the Ground.

1807 Trans. Highl. Soc. 3 472 I rather think they are poisoned by being reduced to eat such unwholesome food.

1834 J. W. Carlyle Lett. I. 6 She is every other day reduced to borrow my tumblers, my teacups.

1844 G. Procter Hist. Italy (ed. 2) 157/1 It shamed his pride that circumstances had reduced him to mingle the blood of the Visconti with that of a peasant.

1894 G. Meredith Lord Ormont ii Poor gentlemen reduced to submit to any but a young woman's hug.

1930 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 60 417 Have his forbears left him no money? (that he is reduced to steal).

2002 Financial Express (India) (Nexis) 14 Oct. The government has been reduced to borrow in order to meet its establishment expenses.

†e. transitive. To overcome, subdue, repress, moderate (a desire, temper, etc.). Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > calmness > self-possession or self-control > control oneself or the emotions [verb (transitive)]

govern1340

sober1390

obtempera1492

refrain?1521

control1568

obtemperate1575

command1586

smother1594

subject1620

controla1627

possess1643

reduce1643

devour1650

stiflea1683

to wrestle down1808

1643 [implied in: J. Milton Doctr. Divorce 10 Mariage cannot be honorable for the meer reducing and terminating of lust between two. (at reducing n.)].

1706 G. Stanhope Paraphr. Epist. & Gospels III. 13 We reduce and restrain our Desires of things agreeable here.

1714 T. Hearne Ductor Historicus (ed. 3) I. iii. 417 Not being able to reduce the Temper of the Tyrant or procure Justice.

1821 Gentleman's Mag. 91 i. Suppl. 612/1 We see that a love of learning has a tendency to reduce untractable tempers.

f. transitive. To crush, put down (a rebellion). Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > subjection > subjecting or subjugation > subject [verb (transitive)] > suppress, repress, or put down > rebellion or riot

repress1445

suppressa1538

reduce1682

1682 W. Smith Charge Quarter-Sessions 2 The King at a great charge sent Ships and Souldiers thither, reduced that Rebellion, and settled the Country in peace.

a1687 W. Petty Polit. Anat. Ireland (1691) 6 The Army who reduced the Rebellion, did..consist of near 35000 Men.

1786 J. Gillies Hist. Anc. Greece I. xx. 663 Thirty carried on the war in Macedonia, to reduce the rebellion of Amphipolis.

1897 S. Baring-Gould Life Napoleon xiv. 85 The other Deputies and Commissioners who were with the army sent to reduce the insurrection in Provence.

1972 Harvard Stud. Classical Philol. 76 131 Darius' drive for the royal tiara, his struggle to reduce one rebellion after another, and to unify the Empire occupied his first four years.

26. transitive. Scottish (chiefly Law). To rescind, revoke, or annul (a decree, etc.) by judicial order; to declare formally to be invalid; to set aside. Also intransitive.

ΘΚΠ

society > law > rule of law > illegality > render illegal [verb (transitive)] > deprive of legal validity

abatea1325

squatcha1325

voida1325

allayc1325

annul1395

reverse1395

revokec1400

rupt?a1425

repealc1425

abroge1427

defeat1429

purloin1461

cassa1464

toll1467

resume1472

reprove1479

suspend1488

discharge1495

reduce1498

cassate1512

defease1512

denulla1513

disannula1513

fordoa1513

avoid1514–5

abrogate?1520

frustrate1528

revert1528

disaffirm?1530

extinct1530

resolve1537

null1538

nihilate1545

extinguish1548

elidec1554

revocate1564

annullate1570

squat1577

skaila1583

irritate1605

retex1606

nullify1607

unable1611

refix1621

vitiate1627

invalid1643

vacate1643

unlaw1644

outlaw1647

invalidate1649

disenact1651

vacuate1654

supersedec1674

destroy1805

break1891

1498 in G. Neilson & H. Paton Acts Lords of Council Civil Causes (1918) II. 241 That he micht call his parti til produce the execucione of the horne..and til haf the sammyn reducit..because thai war out of ordour.

1542 in D. H. Fleming Registrum Secreti Sigilli Regum Scotorum (1921) II. 733/2 The previlege..of the saidis courtis..to replege, reduc and agane bring.

1574 Reg. Privy Council Scotl. 1st Ser. II. 392 Their infeftment salbe reduceit and decernit null.

1609 J. Skene tr. Form of Proces xxxvi. §2 in Regiam Majestatem 127 Na Iudge may reduce his awne decreit, except the Lords of session.

1644 J. Maxwell Answer to Worthy Gentleman 65 No Iudgment passed there can be rectified or reduced by any Iudicatorie..but by themselves.

1722 W. Forbes Institutes I. ii. 251 The Lords of Session may not only reduce the Decreets of all inferior courts, but also may reduce their own Decrees.

1742 Acts Sederunt Scotl. (1753) II. 49 [The] Arbitrers, who pronounced the Decreet now reduced.

1768 D. Cook Ann. Pittenweem 149 The former magistrates and council, whose election was reduced and set aside by decreet of the Court of Session.

1812 Caledonian Mercury (Electronic text) 1 Feb. The Court..reduced and set aside the election of Mr Henderson.

1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scotl. 831 The creditors of an apparent heir may also pursue a reduction..without previously adjudging the right to reduce.

1865 Glasgow Herald 25 Mar. His first thought was to have the marriage settlement reduced.

1910 Daily Chron. 12 Mar. 5/7 A decree of divorce could be opened up on the ground of perjury or collusion within a period of forty years, but the decree was seldom reduced.

1947 Scotsman 8 July The decree of general service in favour of the first parties being reduced on the appearance of a nearer heir than the first parties.

1993 Times 30 Dec. 34/3 The court had reduced the conveyances on the ground that they were gratuitous alienations.

27.

a. transitive. To bring down to an undesirable or unsatisfactory condition (as hardship, misery, poverty, etc.).

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > adversity > suffer (adversity or affliction) [verb (transitive)] > bring to lower condition or lay low

settle1338

subduea1500

decaya1535

redact1542

reduce1567

to lay any one on his back1662

1567 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure II. iv. f. 31 They will not spare to reduce me to miserie, they will not sticke to imagine all deuises for mine anoyance.

1572 in Buccleuch MSS (Hist. MSS Comm.) (1899) I. 23 Scotland wes reducet to gret extremeties.

1662 J. Davies tr. A. Olearius Voy. & Trav. J. Albert de Mandelslo 22 in Voy. & Trav. Ambassadors The continual rains reduced it [sc. a province] to..a deplorable condition.

1671 J. Milton Samson Agonistes 1468 Having reduc't Thir foe to misery.

1748 B. Robins & R. Walter Voy. round World by Anson iii. ii. 319 Thus were we all..reduced to the utmost despair.

1777 R. Watson Hist. Reign Philip II I. ii. 27 His children..had reduced him to the painful necessity of taking arms against them.

1819 W. Irving Sketch Bk. i. 43 He found himself reduced almost to penury.

1868 W. E. Gladstone Juventus Mundi (1870) i. 4 The Dorian conquest had the immediate effect of reducing Mycenae to obscurity.

1921 L. Strachey Queen Victoria i. 15 The ducal family were reduced to beggary, almost to starvation.

1950 ‘W. Cooper’ Scenes Provincial Life ii. iv. 119 You apologize to the one who ought to apologize to you—to such straits does love reduce dignity and common sense.

2004 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 7 Oct. 4/1 They had all been..reduced to indigence by the dispossessions of the Gold Rush.

b. transitive. With gerund or verbal noun. To bring down or lower (a person) to engaging in an undesirable or unsatisfactory activity. Frequently in passive.

ΚΠ

1683 London Jilt i. 81 One day to be perplex'd with two or three little Children, and be reduced to Begging, or some worse thing.

1743 Sel. Trans. Soc. Improvers Knowl. Agric. Scotl. 226 Had this Husbandry been general in the dear Years, the Poor had not been reduced to..living on Arnots, Myles, or the like.

1866 ‘G. Eliot’ Felix Holt I. vi. 152 She had soon been reduced to walking, that she might save her pence to buy bread with.

1878 Amer. Jrnl. Math. 1 257 As there seems to be no ready method of getting even a roughly approximate value of y₀, we are reduced to making a series of guesses.

1915 A. Huxley Let. 26 Apr. (1969) 70 We're losing our heads and our senses of humour—and soon we shall be reduced to writing Hymns of Hate—then we're lost.

1970 D. Brown Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee ii. 25 Their food supply was gone, El Sordo said; they were reduced to eating piñon nuts.

2006 Independent 24 Nov. 16/4 Now the perma-tanned boulevardier has been reduced to flogging crisps to obese schoolchildren.

c. transitive. To weaken physically, debilitate. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > cause to be ill [verb (transitive)] > make weak

fellOE

wastec1230

faintc1386

endull1395

resolvea1398

afaintc1400

defeat?c1400

dissolvec1400

weakc1400

craze1476

feeblish1477

debilite1483

overfeeble1495

plucka1529

to bring low1530

debilitate1541

acraze1549

decaya1554

infirma1555

weaken1569

effeeble1571

enervate1572

enfeeble1576

slay1578

to pull downa1586

prosternate1593

shake1594

to lay along1598

unsinew1598

languefy1607

enerve1613

pulla1616

dispirit1647

imbecilitate1647

unstring1700

to run down1733

sap1755

reduce1767

prostrate1780

shatter1785

undermine1812

imbecile1829

disinvigorate1844

devitalize1849

wreck1850

atrophy1865

crumple1892

1684 S. Pordage tr. T. Willis Of Feavers in Pract. Physick (rev. ed.) xvi. 137 This sick person was wholly free from a Delirium, nor was struck with Convulsive motions, till reduced almost to extremity.]

1689 [implied in: R. Boyle Let. 22 Aug. in Wks. (1772) I. p. cxxviii You will not find me more backward than formerly to serve you faithfully in my reduced capacity. (at reduced adj. 6)].

1751 D. Ingram Pract. Cases & Observ. Surg. 125 These large Drains so reduced the Patient, that sometimes he was in Danger of sinking.

1767 B. Gooch Pract. Treat. Wounds I. 80 An ulcer..which had reduced the patient exceedingly, and brought her life into imminent danger.

1838 C. Dickens Oliver Twist II. xxxi. 202 Fever and ague..hung about him for many weeks, and reduced him sadly.

1856 E. K. Kane Arctic Explor. II. xxix. 288 The men seemed half crazy: I had not realized how much we were reduced by absolute famine.

1909 J. Bigelow Retrospections I. iii. 49 I bethought me of the discussion I had heard at Hull & Gray's office about the evils of bleeding and reducing the patient thereby.

1929 M. W. Beckwith Black Roadways 13 The pawpaw..takes the richness from the soil or the strength from the householders themselves... The ‘night jessamy’, too, if planted near a house will ‘reduce you’.

d. transitive. To cause (a person) to be involuntarily or helplessly given over to tears, laughter, etc.

ΚΠ

1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 320. 412 Till perhaps an easie young Girl is reduced to Sighs, Dreams and Tears; and languishes away her Life for a careless Coxcomb.

1800 J. Hoole tr. P. Metastasio Dido iii. xviii, in Dramas & Other Poems II. Would'st thou..See Dido then at length Reduc'd to feeble tears?

1857 Harper's Mag. Dec. 53/2 After which annihilating question I was duly bullied, brow-beaten, and reduced to silence.

1894 A. Gissing Vagabond in Arts II. ix. 299 ‘Then what brings you here?’ asked Shiel, reduced to derisive laughter.

1937 Amer. Home Apr. 165/1 We saw the pretty little waitress reduced almost to tears by the refusal of the club president to take soup.

1988 I. Colegate Deceits of Time (1990) 10 She remembered..Melanie Farmer, so easily reduced to giggles by the men and to tears by Sister.

2007 Daily Tel. 4 Apr. 22/4 The surliness of some midwives several times reduced me to tears.

e. transitive. To bring down to a smaller allowance, more limited means, etc.

ΚΠ

1722 Serm. French Hugonot Teacher 16 Men..who would be reduced to short Commons and a hard Lodging, if their Wives had been born with less Beauty and Wit, or more Vertue.

1819 P. B. Shelley Cenci ii. ii. 29 If you..were reduced at once From thrice-driven beds of down, and delicate food,..To that which nature doth indeed require?

1875 C. F. Woolson Castle Nowhere 305 We, who..had eaten our four courses and dessert every day on the ocean-steamer, found ourselves here reduced to the depressing diet of a herring and pilot-bread.

1915 D. Mawson Home of Blizzard II. 242 Finding that provisions were running rather short on the last day of February,we reduced ourselves to an allowance of one pound of sugar per week each.

2003 Sunday Tasmanian (Nexis) 14 Dec. We will all be reduced to bread and water to pay for our Yuletide largesse.

f. transitive. Of physical or emotional hardship or stress: to drive or bring (a person) down to a figure of helplessness, debilitation, etc.

ΚΠ

1797 Edinb. Mag. Apr. 269/1 The gout, which at last reduced him to a cripple.

1850 Eclectic Mag. Dec. 542/2 Time and dissipation had done their work... He was reduced to a mere shadow, the wreck of what he had once been.

1907 La Crosse (Wisconsin) Tribune 18 Feb. 6/6 The best man cannot remain so if he is reduced to a nervous wreck.

1919 Z. Grey Desert of Wheat xxvi. 315 That shell had exploded close to the place where Dorn stood. It terrified him. It reduced him to a palpitating, stricken wretch.

1991 Managem. Accounting Sept. 88/1 High-powered business executives who take far-reaching decisions with confidence, yet are reduced to a shaking remnant when it comes to flying.

2008 Courier Mail (Austral.) (Nexis) 27 Aug. 2 Many girls would be reduced to a bawling mess by such humiliation.

28.

a. transitive. To bring down to a lower rank, position, dignity, etc. Also without construction, and (occasionally) with infinitive.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disrepute > damage to reputation > degrading or debasement > degrade [verb (transitive)]

vile1297

supplanta1382

to bring lowa1387

revilea1393

gradea1400

villain1412

abject?a1439

to-gradea1440

vilifyc1450

villainy1483

disparage1496

degradea1500

deject?1521

disgraduate1528

disgress1528

regrade1534

base1538

diminute1575

lessen1579

to turn down1581

to pitch (a person) over the bar?1593

disesteem1594

degender1596

unnoble1598

disrank1599

reduce1599

couch1602

disthrone1603

displume1606

unplume1621

disnoble1622

disworth?1623

villainize1623

unglory1626

ungraduate1633

disennoble1645

vilicate1646

degraduate1649

bemean1651

deplume1651

lower1653

cheapen1654

dethrone1659

diminish1667

scoundrel1701

sink1706

demean1715

abjectate1731

unglorifya1740

unmagnify1747

undignify1768

to take the shine out of (less frequently from, U.S. off)1819

dishero1838

misdemean1843

downgrade1892

demote1919

objectify1973

1599 S. Daniel Let. from Octavia Argt. sig. B^v, in Poet. Ess. He armes his forces either to reduce Antonie to the ranke of his estate, or else to disranke him out of state and al.

1641 J. Milton Reason Church-govt. Concl. 61 The protestant religion..must undresse them of all their guilded vanities, and reduce them as they were at first, to the lowly and equall order of Presbyters.

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost v. 843 More illustrious made, since he the Head One of our number thus reduc't becomes.

1727 A. Pope et al. Περι Βαθους: Art of Sinking 39 in J. Swift et al. Misc.: Last Vol. The Book of Job is acknowledg'd to be infinitely sublime, and yet has not our Father of the Bathos reduc'd it in every Page?

1751 J. Harris Hermes ii. i. 217 The Articles (A) and (The)..circumscribe the latitude of Genera and Species, by reducing them for the most part to denote Individuals.

1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall V. xlix. 146 The ambition of the popes was reduced to the empty honour of crowning and anointing these hereditary princes.

1811 T. Jefferson Writings (1830) IV. 164 The moment they usurp their direction and that of their government, they will be reduced to their true places.

1864 J. Bryce Holy Rom. Empire iv. 47 By setting the Emperor at the head of the Church to reduce the Pope to the place of chief bishop of his realm.

1946 Astounding Sci. Fiction Dec. 51/2 Then followed the final atomic war which reduced us to wandering tribes sunk lower than savages.

1969 J. T. Story Dishonourable Member (1978) xiv. 160 That was a name that seemed slightly to ridicule and reduce me.

2007 N.Y. Times 28 Jan. (Washington Final ed.) iv. 16/1 The Shiites would have to accept that there never will be a stable Iraq if the Sunnis are reduced to helot status.

b. transitive. Originally Military. to reduce to (formerly also †into) the ranks: to demote (a non-commissioned officer) to the rank of private; (more generally) to strip (any officer or official) of his or her seniority; to demote. Also in extended use.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > military organization > enlistment or recruitment > appointment to rank > appoint to rank [verb (transitive)] > demote

ungenerala1657

to reduce to (formerly also into) the ranks?1758

disrate1811

?1758 C. W. Direct. Execution Militia Act 9 To serjeants to be reduced into the ranks, which is the purport of this clause.

1768 Gen. Wolfe's Instr. Young Officers 58 The lieutenant-colonel is determined to reduce to the ranks all such as are wilfully negligent, or too ignorant for their stations.

1800 Caledonian Mercury (Electronic text) 20 Dec. Before this took place, the Emperor [sc. the Czar of Russia] met him, and in consequence, he was reduced to the ranks, and his servant made an officer in his place.

1844 Queen's Regulations & Orders Army 149 Non-commissioned Officers may be reduced to the Ranks by the Sentence of a Regimental or other Court-Martial.

1869 T. W. Higginson Malbone ii. 69 The girls complained that in private theatricals no combination of disguises could reduce Kate to the ranks, nor give her the ‘make-up’ of a waiting-maid.

1908 S. M. Crothers By Christmas Fire v. 208 He rebukes even the Captains of Industry, and when they answer insolently, he suggests that they be reduced to the ranks.

1967 S. Mackay Old Crow vi. 31 She had once deprived a vicar of his living and, as a girl, had a captain reduced to the ranks.

1993 S. McAughtry Touch & Go vii. 54 Instead of being reduced to the ranks and put on shithouse fatigues, he was transferred to Air-Sea Rescue on Walrus amphibians.

c. transitive. Originally and chiefly Military = to reduce to the ranks at sense 28b. Now rare.

ΚΠ

1859 T. F. Hobbs Subaltern's Hand-bk. xvii. 69 If a Sergeant who had served ten years as such was reduced, would he reap any benefit from his former service as Sergeant if he again attained that rank?

1903 Times 8 Oct. 12/2 The prisoner was at one time a detective-sergeant... He was reduced, and for some time did duty at Old-street police-station.

1941 Sun (Baltimore) 17 Feb. 18/4 He was a top sergeant there. His cooking career began in France in July, 1918, when he was ‘reduced’ and made a mess sergeant.

1953 K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xxiii. 220 The deputy-governor..had been reduced and sent to Barmeadow because of some trouble in a gaol of which he had been governor.

29. Military.

a. transitive. To break up or disband (a regiment or other force). Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > military operations > distribution of troops > [verb (transitive)] > levy or mobilize > disband

cash1564

cashier1580

disband1591

reform1604

reduce1637

disbandon1640

disembody1762

demobilize1850

immobilize1871

demob1919

1637 R. Monro Exped. Scots Regim. i. 83 We see..some Regiments made up and continue in florishing order, other Regiments reduced taking an end,..Spynies Regiment was reduced, and my Lord of Rhees Regiment is made up againe.

1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) at Reform In Military Affairs, to Reform is to reduce a Body of Men, either disbanding the Whole,..or only breaking a Part.

1766 Answers A. Grant 3 L. 1:4:6, being Lieutenant Forbes's subsistence-money from the 24th February 1763 to the 3d March thereafter, when the regiment was reduced.

1802 C. James New Mil. Dict. (at cited word) When a regiment is reduced, the officers are generally put upon half-pay.

1863 Upper Canada Law Jrnl. Mar. 58/2 He was commissioned to an ensigncy in the Queen's Rangers,..in which corps he served till the peace, in 1783, when the regiment was reduced.

1910 Encycl. Brit. II. 622/2 An officer whose regiment was reduced commonly took a pike in some other corps.

†b. transitive. To discharge (an officer) from active service, esp. as a consequence of the disbanding of a regiment. Obsolete (rare and historical in later use).

ΚΠ

1649 W. Prynne Legall Vindic. Liberties Eng. (new ed.) 28 Sixty thousand pounds a month was thought abundantly sufficient by the Officers and Army themselves, to disband and reduce all super-numeraries, maintain the Established Army and Garisons, and ease the Country of all Free-quarter.

1659 Procl. Council of State 17 Mar. Whereas several officers reduced and disbanded, within the space of a year last past, do now remain in and about the cities of London and Westminster.

1832 Trials Charles I 137 The presbyterians in the House..proposed to disband great part of the army without indemnity.., to reduce all officers above the rank of colonel, with the single exception Fairfax.

†c. transitive. To cause (a battalion formed in the shape of a square) to break formation, the component parts being restored to line or column. Chiefly in to reduce the square. Obsolete.

ΚΠ

1627 G. Markham 2nd Pt. Soldiers Gram. ii. 29 Heere you behould the square or forme of a Battalia, now to reduce this to a Diamond, or imperfect square.]

1728 Exerc. Foot Forces 89 (heading) To Reduce the Square.

1773 R. Lambart New Syst. Mil. Discipline Pref. p. vi I have..directed, how and in what situation it [sc. the square] is to be formed, and how to reduce it when the occasion ceases.

1860 W. J. Hardee Rifle & Light Infantry Tactics (new ed.) II. 193 The colonel, wishing to break the square, will command: 1. Reduce square. 2. March (or double quick—March).

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	reduce
释义	† reducen. Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: reduce v. Etymology: < reduce v. Obsolete. rare. Reduction. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > quantity > decrease or reduction in quantity, amount, or degree > [noun] waningc900 littlingOE lessingc1350 abating1370 diminutionc1374 minishinga1382 decrease1383 remissiona1398 shrinkinga1398 decreasing1398 adminishing?c1400 abbreviation?a1425 lessening?a1425 minoration?a1425 disincrease1430 abatement1433 restrictiona1450 batea1475 diminuation1477 limitation1483 abate1486 minute1495 minishment1533 mitigation1533 diminishinga1535 extenuation1542 slacking1542 reduce1549 diminishment1551 perditionc1555 debatementa1563 rebatement1573 obstriction1578 imminution1583 contracting1585 contraction1589 rabate1589 rebating1598 retrenchmentc1600 decession1606 ravalling1609 reducement1619 decrement1621 bating1629 shrivellinga1631 decretion1635 dejection1652 abater1653 rolling back1658 limiting1677 batement1679 reduction1695 depression1793 downdraw1813 descent1832 decess1854 lowering1868 shrinkage1873 dégringolade1883 minification1894 degrowth1920 downrating1950 1549 King Edward VI Let. 22 July in J. Foxe Actes & Monuments (1563) 692/1 That from hencefourth ye haue an earnest & special regard to the reduce of these things. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2021). reducev. Brit. /rᵻˈdjuːs/, /rᵻˈdʒuːs/, U.S. /rəˈd(j)us/, /riˈd(j)us/ Forms: late Middle English redouce, late Middle English redued (past participle, transmission error), late Middle English redus, late Middle English reduyse, late Middle English–1700s reduse, late Middle English– reduce, 1500s redywce; Scottish pre-1700 raduce, pre-1700 reduc, pre-1700 reduse, pre-1700 riduiss, pre-1700 1700s– reduce. Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French reducer, réduire; Latin redūcere. Etymology: < Middle French reducer, reducier to recall, to bring back to the memory, mind, etc. (early 15th cent.), variant of réduire (see below) and its etymon classical Latin redūcere to lead or bring back, to withdraw, to retire, to draw back, to revive, to bring back (earlier) in time, to restore, to recall, to represent, to bring (to a state), to bring down (in degree or quality), in post-classical Latin also to subdue (10th cent.), (in logic) to bring a syllogism (or proposition) into a different but equivalent form (a1250 in a British source), to set (a broken bone), to bring down, diminish to a smaller number, amount, quantity, extent, etc. (1363 in Chauliac), to restore a metal to the unchanged or metallic state (1537 in Paracelsus) < re- re- prefix + dūcere to lead, bring (see duct n.). Compare Old Occitan reduire (12th cent.), reduzir (14th cent.; also redusir), Catalan reduir (14th cent.), Spanish reducir (c1440), Portuguese reduzir (14th cent.), Italian ridurre (a1348).Middle French reducer , reducier shows a learned borrowing of the Latin word, beside earlier reduire (12th cent. in Old French in reflexive use in sense ‘to withdraw, to hide’), which shows remodelling after conduire (see conduce v.). Many of the senses of the English word are paralleled by Middle French reduire, French réduire, e.g.: to lead or bring back (a person or thing) (1370; earlier in reflexive use in sense ‘to withdraw, to hide’ (13th cent. in Old French)), to decrease the number or extent of (c1370), to conform to, to adapt to (c1377), to bring (a person) back to God, to the true or right faith (a1389), to recall, to bring back to the memory, mind, etc. (a1389), to set down in writing, to transcribe (second half of the 14th cent.), to force to submit, to overcome, subdue (1412), to bring back to the natural or previous state or condition (a1420), to remind (a person) (a1444), to set (a broken bone) (1478), to translate (c1530), to convert a fraction into a different form, especially one with the lowest possible values of numerator and denominator (1538), to express (a unit) in terms of another denomination or unit (1559), to reduce one's lifestyle, to limit oneself (mid 17th cent.), to smelt (a metal) (1680). I. To contract, condense; to make smaller, diminish. 1. transitive. To bring or draw together, to contract; to confine. Also reflexive.In later use only as implying reduction of bulk, and as such frequently indistinguishable from sense 2. ΘΚΠ the world > space > extension in space > reduction in size or extent > reduce in size or extent [verb (transitive)] thinc900 narroweOE smalleOE slakea1300 adminisha1325 minisha1382 reduce?c1400 diminish1417 littlea1500 extenuate1555 enstraiten1590 scantle1596 scant1599 bedwarfa1631 epitomize1630 dwarf1638 retrench1640 stunt1659 to take in1700 belittle1785 dwarfify1816 reduct1819 micrify1836 clip1858 downsize1977 the world > space > extension in space > reduction in size or extent > reduce in size or extent [verb (reflexive)] reduce?c1400 lessen1604 ?c1400 (c1380) G. Chaucer tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (BL Add. 10340) (1868) iii. pr. viii. l. 2246 Of alle whiche forseide þinges I may reducen [L. redigere] þis shortly in a somme. 1481 W. Caxton tr. Myrrour of Worlde ii. xv. 100 Yf he mete ony beste that wold doo hym harme he reduyseth hym self as rounde as a bowle. ?1533 G. Du Wes Introductorie for to lerne Frenche sig. Giv ^v To reduce narowly, Coartér. 1600 E. Blount tr. G. F. di Conestaggio Hist. Uniting Portugall to Castill 4 Portugall was then obscure, vntilled, poore, and reduced into streight limits. 1655 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. I. iii. 1 This was one of those small villages scattered through Attica, before Theseus reduc'd the people into the walls of a City. 1777 R. Watson Hist. Reign Philip II I. ii. 48 He..reduced the water into a canal large enough to receive some small boats. 1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall V. xlviii. 2 The Roman name..is reduced to a narrow corner of Europe. 1807 ‘P. Plymley’ Two Lett. on Catholics ii. 25 Reduce this declamation to a point, and let us understand what you mean. 1836 C. Dickens Sketches by Boz 1st Ser. II. 122 The unfortunate Tom reduced himself into the least possible space. 1875 Littell's Living Age 6 Nov. 374/1 The discussions and controversies which occupied for years the attention of the literary Italian world can scarcely be reduced into a few paragraphs. 1912 Times 9 Dec. 15/4 Just as if the full power of a stream of water a foot in diameter..were reduced into a pipe 1 in. in diameter. 1985 C. E. Eaton Work of Wrench 49 For the brilliant sun To have reduced itself into a ball Rolled into the room like a yellow billiard. 2. a. transitive. To bring down or diminish to (formerly †unto) a smaller number, amount, quantity, extent, etc., or to a single thing; (in later use also) to bring down to a simpler form. ΚΠ ?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 63^v Þer beþ put 8 maner localeȝ to restreyne þe flux of blode, I reduce hem to me as now present vnto 5. 1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. cccxli^v Whan thys..[seemed] ouer long, Clement the sixt reduced [L. redegit] the same vnto fifty yeres. 1581 J. Bell tr. W. Haddon & J. Foxe Against Jerome Osorius f. 403 Whereas Clement the 6. which abridged the Iubilee from the hundreth yeare to the fiftyth... Whereas Gregory the 11. reduced the Iubilee to the 33. yeare. 1591 T. Lodge Catharos f. 16^v These men and Magistrates would not admit that vsurie should exceed the compasse of one pennie for an hundred by the yeare..tenne yeres after..it was reduced vnto halfe an ounce by the moneth. 1627 T. May tr. Lucan Pharsalia (new ed.) vii. Mviijb To what small number is mankind reduc'd. 1662 E. Stillingfleet Origines Sacræ ii. vi. §4 But Aquinas doth better reduce the two former to one. 1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost i. 790 Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms Reduc'd thir shapes immense. View more context for this quotation 1726 D. Defoe Polit. Hist. Devil i. xi. 186 The Church of God was now reduc'd to two Tribes. 1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. at Spunge A pound of spunge.., on drying carefully.., will be reduced to eleven ounces. 1807 T. Young Course Lect. Nat. Philos. I. xxxix. 459 Some substances retain all their properties when they are reduced to the thickness of the ten millionth of an inch at most. 1867 J. H. Stirling tr. A. Schwegler Handbk. Hist. Philos. vi. 15 Eleaticism..endeavours to reduce the manifold of existence to a single ultimate principle. 1871 C. Davies Metric Syst. iii. 187 He finds by experience that these [two] may with increased convenience be reduced to one. 1920 Psychol. Rev. 27 71 The psychological simplification of human behaviour, which reduces instinctive conduct to the functioning of psychical dispositions or impulses. 1954 E. Huxley Four Guineas (1955) 246 The harmattan silvers over the flat, dry, monotonous landscape with powdery dust, reducing visibility to perhaps a hundred yards. 1974 U. K. Le Guin Dispossessed vi. 137 He bit his fingernails, and in years of doing so had reduced them to mere strips across his..fingertips. 2007 Guardian 29 May (G2 section) 26/1 One-hour TV shows from the archive reduced to between three and five minutes. b. transitive. Without construction: to lower, diminish, lessen; to make smaller; (also) to limit. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > quantity > decrease or reduction in quantity, amount, or degree > reduce in quantity, amount, or degree [verb (transitive)] littleeOE anitherOE wanzelOE lessc1225 slakea1300 littenc1300 aslakec1314 adminisha1325 allayc1330 settle1338 low1340 minisha1382 reprovea1382 abatea1398 rebatea1398 subtlea1398 alaskia1400 forlyten?a1400 imminish14.. lessenc1410 diminish1417 repress?a1425 assuagec1430 scarcec1440 small1440 underslakec1440 alessa1450 debate?c1450 batec1460 decreasec1470 appetisse1474 alow1494 mince1499 perswage?1504 remita1513 inless?1521 attenuate1530 weaken1530 defray1532 mitigate1532 minorate1534 narrow?1548 diminuec1550 extenuate1555 amain1578 exolve1578 base1581 dejecta1586 amoinder1588 faint1598 qualify1604 contract1605 to pull down1607 shrivel1609 to take down1610 disaugment1611 impoverish1611 shrink1628 decoct1629 persway1631 unflame1635 straiten1645 depress1647 reduce1649 detract1654 minuate1657 alloy1661 lower?1662 sinka1684 retreat1690 nip1785 to drive down1840 minify1866 to knock down1867 to damp down1869 scale1887 mute1891 clip1938 to roll back1942 to cut back1943 downscale1945 downrate1958 slim1963 downshift1972 1649 Moderate No. 35. 364 The house was moved that the Interest of 8.1 per cent. might be reduced to 6 I. per annum. 1670 D. Lloyd State-worthies (ed. 2) 447 His natural inclination to Parsimony, or some fixed design to regulate and reduce the great expences of this Nation. 1733 B. Martyn Reasons establishing Colony of Georgia 9 The Price of that Commodity is greatly reduced abroad. 1787 J. Bentham Def. Usury vii. 69 No law can reduce the common rate of interest below the lowest ordinary market rate, at the time when the law was made. 1833 I. Taylor Fanaticism vi. 169 Every attempt to reduce the plain import of certain passages in the Gospels. 1856 E. K. Kane Arctic Explor. I. x. 114 Step by step..we went on reducing our sledging outfit. 1878 T. H. Huxley Physiography (ed. 2) 42 If a current of warm and moist air meet a colder current its temperature is reduced. 1933 H. Allen Anthony Adverse xxvii. 376 With some difficulty Collins got permission to reduce sail and finally to send down the royal and t'gallant masts. 1940 A. L. M. Sowerby Wall's Dict. Photogr. (ed. 15) 438 Macro-photography occupies a position intermediate between ordinary photography, in which objects are much reduced, and photo-micrography. 1965 M. Frayn Tin Men xiv. 74 The smoke..perpetually made her eyes water, which presumably reduced her vision still further. 2007 New Yorker 26 Nov. 156/2 They'd reduce their carbon footprint with biologically safe, water-activated tape. c. intransitive. To become lessened, lowered, or limited. ΚΠ 1912 Geogr. Jrnl. 39 256 In all streams the current is most rapid near the surface, and gradually reduces towards the bed. 1971 Ideal Home Apr. 69/1 The size of houses in sq. ft. has tended to reduce quite rapidly over the last few years. 1992 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 15 Oct. c1 If you cashed in your units within five years, you paid a redemption fee, which reduced each year. 2004 Independent 17 Jan. 17/1 (advt.) His wheezing seemed to reduce and he found easier to breathe clearly through his nose. 3. In various spec. uses. a. transitive. To bring (liquid) to a smaller volume, and hence to a greater concentration or a thicker consistency, usually by boiling; to condense. Also without construction. Also intransitive: (of liquid) to undergo such a reduction in volume. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > quantity > increase in quantity, amount, or degree > [verb (transitive)] > increase the intensity of > by concentration reduce1601 concentrate1686 condense1849 1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. xxii. ix. 120 The juice of Liquorice reduced to a thicke consistence, if it be put under the tongue, is singular for to cleare the voice. 1658 J. Evelyn tr. N. de Bonnefons French Gardiner App. 292 Reduce this liquor also to a third part, diminishing the fire, according as your confection thickens. 1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. (at cited word) The first step is to reduce that liquor to the consistence of a rob or thick extract. 1778 Farmer's Mag. iii. 226 Let them stew gently over a stove fire, till your gravy is reduced just to cover your fish in the dish. 1853 A. Soyer Pantropheon 271 Wine, reduced to two-thirds by boiling, was added. 1861 Amer. Agriculturist July 203/3 Cook's Patent rocker evaporator..was used to reduce the syrup. 1911 F. M. Farmer Catering for Special Occasions v. 123 One-half can tomatoes, stewed, strained, and cooked until reduced to two tablespoons. 1949 Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner 9 Dec. 4 b/6 Cover and simmer... If gravy should reduce too fast, add more cream or chicken broth. 1996 Divertimenti Mail Order Catal. Autumn 29/1 The 16cm pan with splayed sides is the ideal size for reducing stock for sauces. b. transitive. To diminish the strength or concentration of; to dilute. ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > drink > manufacture of alcoholic drink > distilling > [verb (transitive)] > lower strength to make up1725 reduce1725 1725 G. Smith Compl. Body Distilling ii. 96 When the goods are reduced, and the body of them weaken'd with liquor, the Oyl separating from the spirit..renders the whole of a milky colour. 1779 W. A. Smyth Publican's Guide 22 I do not mean to insinuate that rum reduced with water is pernicious; it may be very good, if the aqua is pure. 1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 774 Keep reducing this ink with gum-water until it flows with ease from the pen or reed. 1880 Act 43 & 44 Vict. c. 24 §67 A distiller may..reduce with water any plain spirits. 1963 Times 26 Oct. 6/4 In the vatting hall the whisky is ‘reduced’ with water..to the required proof strength. 1986 J. Peacock et al. Print & Production Man. viii. 144 Gravure ink is often supplied at higher viscosities than is required on the press, and is reduced with solvent before printing. 1997 Independent (Nexis) 31 May 42 Like most spirits, many rums are reduced with water, to be bottled at 40 or 42 per cent. c. transitive. To bring down or mark down (a piece of merchandise, etc.) to a lower price. Also without construction. Frequently in passive. Cf. reduced adj. 2c. ΚΠ 1763 Ann. Reg. 1762 i. 147/1 What remained..were further reduced to half-price. 1797 Times 12 Oct. 1/2 (advt.) The Stock has been designedly reduced very low, for the accommodation of the purchaser. 1852 Hull Packet & E. Riding Times 11 June 4/1 (advt.) The spring and summer stock reduced, to clear at a sacrifice, prior to the stoppage of trade produced by the coming election. 1872 Daily Tel. 30 Nov. The old Dutch auction, by which an article was put up at a high price, and, if nobody accepted the offer, then reduced to a lower. 1896 Times 28 Jan. 16/3 (advt.) All model gowns and costumes further reduced to clear. 1939 J. Joyce Finnegans Wake i. 166 A real fur, reduced to 3/9. 1991 Independent 2 Dec. 19/7 I..cannot really justify the purchase of an Astro V Computer Horoscope, even reduced to $29.95. 2006 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 9 Oct. i. 11 (advt.) Shop early for best selection... All drastically reduced for immediate take with or delivery! d. transitive. Photography. To decrease the density of (a print or negative). Cf. reducer n. 2d, reduction n. 14f. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > photography > photographic processes > [verb (transitive)] > develop > developing procedures reduce1855 tan1899 rehalogenize1969 1855 T. F. Hardwich Man. Photogr. Chem. ii. v. 291 Albumen pictures are more reduced by the colouring Bath than Ammonio-Nitrate pictures. 1889 E. J. Wall Dict. Photogr. 158 Bromide prints may be reduced in exactly the same way as negatives. 1903 A. Watkins Photography (ed. 2) 118 Do not throw away paper prints which are too dark from over printing. They can be reduced. 1963 P. Moyes Murder à la Mode iv. 65 ‘What does “reducing” mean, exactly?’ ‘Makin' the print lighter... If the neg's too contrasty, like you can't get the light part to print without the dark's too dark. So you reduce it. By nibbin' the dark part with cyanide.’ e. transitive. Linguistics. To articulate (a speech sound) in a way requiring less muscular effort; esp. to form (a vowel) in a more neutral, centralized articulatory position; to alter to a particular vowel in this way; to weaken, obscure. Cf. reduced adj. 2b. ΘΚΠ the mind > language > linguistics > study of speech sound > speech sound > vowel > furnish with or produce by vowel [verb (transitive)] > types of obscurea1637 lower1836 labialize1855 reduce1861 round1869 raise1874 unround1874 delabialize1875 tense1978 1861 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 8 369 In unaccented syllables they [sc. vowels] are more or less reduced. 1874 A. J. Ellis On Early Eng. Pronunc. IV. iv. 1099/1 Reducing (r_o) from a consonant to a pure glide. 1909 D. Jones Pronunc. of Eng. i. 46 Cases occur in which almost all other vowels may be reduced to ə when unstressed. 1962 A. C. Gimson Introd. Pronunc. Eng. vii. 143 In present RP the secondary accent has been lost and the former [e] or [ɛ:] reduced to [ə] or elided. 1993 Eng. Today Apr. 20/1 People in southern England..do not give full value to short vowels, reducing them to the universal /ə/. 4. transitive (reflexive). To slim; to lose weight. Also (in later use esp.) intransitive in same sense. Now chiefly U.S. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > quantity > decrease or reduction in quantity, amount, or degree > decrease in quantity, amount, or degree [verb (intransitive)] littleOE setc1000 wanzec1175 lessc1225 allayc1275 wane1297 slaken1303 disincreasec1374 slakec1380 decrease1382 debatea1400 unwaxa1400 wastea1400 adminishc1400 lessenc1400 imminish14.. aslakec1405 minish?a1425 assuagec1430 shrinkc1449 to let down1486 decay1489 diminish1520 fall1523 rebate1540 batea1542 to come down1548 abate1560 stoop1572 pine1580 slack1580 scanten1585 shrivel1588 decrew1596 remit1629 contract1648 subside1680 lower1697 relax1701 drop1730 to take off1776 to run down1792 reduce1798 recede1810 to run off1816 to go down1823 attenuatea1834 ease1876 downscale1945 the world > life > the body > bodily shape or physique > slim shape or physique > slim [verb (intransitive)] reduce1798 slenderize1923 slim1930 to lose weight1961 1798 Ld. Palmerston Diary in B. Connell Portrait of Whig Peer (1957) xii. 408 On February 23rd came to London, reduced myself to about 12 stone, 10 lbs. 1807 Ld. Byron Let. Apr. (1973) I. 117 Since we met, I have reduced myself by violent exercise..from 14 Stone 6 LB. to 12 Stone 7 LB. 1811 L.-M. Hawkins Countess & Gertrude II. xlii. 368 Miss Mendax has now lived, for a long time, on a biscuit per diem... She certainly does not reduce on it. 1892 Waterloo (Iowa) Daily Courier 13 May I'm trying to reduce so that I'll fit my last summer's negligee shirts. 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 13 June 334/5 A commendably simple and, at the same time, reliable guide for those who wish to ‘reduce’ without too much trouble. 1971 Homes & Gardens Sept. 65/3 I try continually to reduce, but you cannot take a couple out for a gay evening and be on a diet. 1996 C. Guess Seeing Dell i. 16 Oh my. So much fried food. I'm trying to reduce. II. To bring back; to bring. †5. transitive. To bring back, restore (a condition, state of things, time, etc.). Also with into (a place). Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > amending > restoration > restore [verb (transitive)] > a condition or state of things accordlOE to call againc1390 reduce1419 repeala1500 to call back?1510 recall1580 reinduce1609 gaincall1611 the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > use or make use of [verb (transitive)] > bring or put into use > bring into use or practice > again reduce1588 reinduce1609 reintroduce1642 1419 Guildhall Let.-bk. in R. W. Chambers & M. Daunt Bk. London Eng. (1931) 99 (MED) Many gret now-a-dayes..vnthrifty wynes..put yn diuers buttys..gummyd with picche, code, & oþir horrible & vnholsome þinges, for to reduce and bryng ayen..a plesaunt colour. 1477 W. Caxton tr. R. Le Fèvre Hist. Jason (1913) 120b To reduce his yongth in suche wise as he shall seme..in the aage of xxxij yere. c1550 Complaynt Scotl. (1979) xi. 71 Ȝour foir fathers..reducit there liberte, quhilk vas ane lang tyme in captiuite. 1588 D. Rogers in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1827) 2nd Ser. III. 152 He causeth manie superstitious and popish ceremonies to be reduced into the Church. 1597 W. Shakespeare Richard III v. viii. 36 Abate the edge of traitors..That would reduce these bloudy daies againe. View more context for this quotation 1627 R. Sybthorpe Apostolike Obed. 20 So the papists lye at waite..to reduce superstition into England. 1630 tr. G. Botero Relations Famous Kingdomes World (rev. ed.) 207 The States..cannot on the sudden reduce perfection in the profession of Religion. c1665 L. Hutchinson Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1973) 53 The endeavours to reduce Poperie, and subvert the true Protestant religion. 1718 T. Dawson Suspiria Sacra v. 16 The Directions given by the famous Jesuit, Contzens for reducing Popery into a Country. 1823 C. Lamb Old Benchers in Elia 206 While childhood, and while dreams, reducing childhood, shall be left. †6. a. transitive. To bring back to (also from) a particular state or condition. Also with other prepositions, and without construction. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > amending > restoration > restore [verb (transitive)] > a thing to or into previous condition reversec1350 reforma1393 recover1393 converta1425 reduce?a1425 revolve1431 returnc1436 recure?1440 remayne1481 relieve1483 redressc1500 restaur1508 reprieve?1567 recollect1606 redeem1613 regain1624 to bring back1662 re-reducea1676 ?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 171 After hys wirching he [sc. green unguent] leseþ his rednez and is reduced to grennes. a1428 in G. W. Kitchin Rec. N. Convocation (1907) 161 (MED) Yai yt has bene broght in errour si [read bi] my sayd prechyng..may be reducid and broght agayn oute of ye errour be yis my revokyng. ?1486 in M. Bateson Rec. Borough Leicester (1901) II. 310 The Kyng our souereigne lord, as a Christen & lowyng prince, entendyng to reduce this his realme to ye auncien honour & prosperite yat hit haeth stonden in, in dayes passed. 1565 T. Stapleton Disc. Doctr. Protestants in tr. F. Staphylus Apol. f. 243 The impudent bragges made nowe in euery pulpit, that all is reduced to the state of the primitiue churche. 1598 R. Barckley Disc. Felicitie of Man ii. 93 To reduce him againe to his former grauitie and course of life. a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) v. ii. 63 Which to reduce into our former fauour, You are assembled. View more context for this quotation 1639 T. Fuller Hist. Holy Warre iv. viii. 182 Matters for the main [were] reduced to the same estate they were at the first peace. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica vii. xix. 384 For the satisfaction of their revenge they..would have reduced them unto life again. View more context for this quotation 1695 J. Woodward Ess. Nat. Hist. Earth 94 Reducing him from the most abject and stupid Ferity, to his Senses, and to sober Reason. 1717 D. Defoe Quarrel of School-boys 16 Thus he was reduced to his former independent State. 1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iv. ii. 28 As if he would signify, that I should reduce them to their former Shape. 1765 Museum Rusticum 4 21 If once a fruit is become deformed, no art will then reduce it. b. transitive. spec. To lead or bring back (a person) from error, sin, immorality, etc.; to restore to the truth or the right faith. Obsolete.Common without construction c1600–1700. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > amending > restoration > restoration of a person > [verb (transitive)] uprighta1340 to bring to (one's) statea1387 restorea1387 remount?c1400 reducec1425 redraw1480 reintegrate1495 restitutec1503 repair?1521 revocate1527 recall1567 redintegrate1578 rehabilitate1580 refetch1599 revindicate1609 re-estate1611 uprighten1618 redintegrate1622 restate1625 redeem1686 society > morality > virtue > righteousness or rectitude > reform, amendment, or correction > reform, amend, or correct [verb (transitive)] > specifically a person raisec1175 chastya1240 amenda1275 chastisec1330 reara1382 revokec1384 redressc1390 reclaima1393 reducec1425 reform1477 reclaim?a1505 emendc1542 claim1546 reduct1548 save1857 decriminalize1963 c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) ii. 183 (MED) I hadde as þo no guyde Me to reducyn whan I went a-wrong. c1475 Wisdom (Folger) (1969) 313 (MED) Wen I erryde, þou reducyde me, Jhesus. 1502 tr. Ordynarye of Crysten Men (de Worde) iv. i. sig. r.i To reduce a synner from the estate of mortall synne, vnto the estate of grace. 1533 T. More 2nd Pt. Confut. Tyndals Answere viii. p. cccccxxxix He thought it a benefyt to the heretyques them selfs to be reduced from theyr errours into the ryght fayth. 1556 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxf. (1880) 245 One Friar John..travelled with him to reduce him. But it would not be. 1590 A. Hutchinson in H. Barrow & J. Greenwood Coll. Sclaunderous Articles C To confer with him about his seperating of himself from the Church of England, if I might reduce him. a1631 J. Donne Βιαθανατος (1647) ii. iii. §1 It is not a better understanding of nature, which hath reduced us from it. 1643 J. Milton Soveraigne Salve 1 If any of these erring men may be reduced, I have my end. 1674 W. Allen Danger of Enthusiasm 20 This very thing..would in great part reduce you, and set you to rights. 1686 R. Parr Life J. Usher 93 This Holy Primate..laboured instantly to reduce Popish Recusants and Sectaries from their Errors. 1710 R. Ward Life H. More 62 Philotheus presently reduceth him with this sober and edifying Discourse. ?1735 J. Tottie Ridicule 30 Our only aim is, by all gentle Arguments of Persuasion, to reduce them from Error to the Acknowledgement of the Truth. 1788 V. Knox Winter Evenings II. iv. xi. 69 So is the knowledge of the passions..necessary to him whose office it is to reduce those who have erred. c. transitive. To redress, make up for (a wrong). Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > amending > put right [verb (transitive)] > put right (a wrong or loss) winc1220 righta1275 astorec1300 addressa1325 reform1405 dressc1410 redressa1413 arightc1420 refound1497 richa1500 redub1531 repair1533 to make good1569 reducec1592 remend1592 to set up1610 to get up1688 c1592 C. Marlowe Jew of Malta i. ii Till they reduce the wrongs done to my father. †7. transitive. In physical sense: to draw or pull back again. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > movement > impelling or driving > pushing and pulling > push and pull [verb (transitive)] > pull > pull back reduce?a1425 retract?a1475 retraha1513 retire1594 disadvance1596 repair1596 rehale1613 repull1632 revulsec1694 ?a1425 MS Hunterian 95 f. 114^v (MED) Putte þe midwarde þerof euen apon þe nose & lede þe endes euen to þe nodel bihynde..& lete þe tone cumme o crosse ouer þe toþer and reduce hem euen ouer þe nose aȝeine. 1611 L. Barry Ram-Alley i. i By her actiuity she got it [sc. her leg]..Crosse her shoulder: but not with all her power Could she reduce it. 1626 G. Sandys tr. Ovid Metamorphosis xi. 228 The Sea-men..Reduce their oares, vp-rising from their Banks With equall strokes. 1698 J. Pechey Compl. Midwife's Practice (ed. 5) iv. xxviii. 144 Let her thrust up her other Hand, and reduce the Arms of the Infant to the sides of it. 8. transitive. Surgery. To set (a broken bone); to restore (esp. a dislocated, fractured, or herniated part) to a normal anatomical position. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > surgery > treatments uniting or replacing parts > unite or replace parts [verb (transitive)] > set bones or dislocations reduce?a1425 set1572 to set together1578 to set to1598 counter-extend1656 the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > surgery > treatments uniting or replacing parts > unite or replace parts [verb (transitive)] > restore to position reduce?a1425 reposit1884 ?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 1 Separate is ioyned in consolding wondes & in reducyng [?c1425 Paris ledynge aȝeyne; L. reducendo] algebras. c1475 tr. Henri de Mondeville Surgery (Wellcome) f. 161^v (MED) It [sc. a broken bone] be reducid to þe same place þat it schulde be reducid to. ?1541 R. Copland Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens iv. sig. Niv^v The .vj. place is vpon the matryce, and vpon the bowelles for to reduce and withdrawe them to theyr places. 1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 912 Salt with meal and honey, takes away the pain of a joynt that is dislocated,..and makes it more apt to be reduced. 1689 J. Moyle Abstr. Sea Chyrurg. ii. vi. 44 Your compound Fracture..will be the more difficult to reduce, because of the new Located Joint. 1720 D. Defoe Life Capt. Singleton 207 He reduced the Splinters of the Bone, and calling for Help, set it. 1748 T. Smollett Roderick Random I. xxviii. 258 We reduced the fracture, dressed the wound, applied the eighteen-tailed bandage. 1803 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 9 202 A man who had dislocated his shoulder, and had had it reduced by a celebrated bone-setter. 1807 S. Cooper First Lines Pract. Surg. I. ii. xxxiv. 387 The congenital hernia, when returnable, ought like all other ruptures to be reduced. a1859 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. (1861) V. xxv. 306 The jolting of the rough roads..made it necessary to reduce the fracture again. 1901 Lancet 22 June 1762/1 While the patient was under the influence of the anæsthetic the dislocation [of the patella] was easily reduced by manipulation. 1977 P. O'Brian Mauritius Command v. 145 The ship had been on a comparatively even keel for some time, with no new cases coming below and the last of the fractured clavicles reduced. 2000 Atchison (Kansas) Daily Globe 22 Aug. 6/6 Ordinarily, a surgeon can readily reduce the hernia (push the bowel back through the hole) and over-sew the opening. †9. a. transitive. To lead or bring back (a person or animal) to (also into, from, etc.) a place or way, or to a person. Also intransitive. Obsolete.Frequently in figurative contexts, esp. with allusion to the idea of returning to righteousness, good conduct, etc.: cf. sense 6b. ΘΚΠ society > travel > aspects of travel > guidance in travel > show (the way) [verb (transitive)] > lead back teachc893 forleadOE to lead the wayc1175 kenc1200 dressc1330 lerec1330 guy1362 guidec1374 reduce?a1425 tell1485 way lead1485 arrect1530 reconduct1566 reduct1580 the world > action or operation > amending > restoration > restoration of a person > [verb (transitive)] > to or from a place or way reduce?a1425 recall1579 ?a1425 tr. Catherine of Siena Orcherd of Syon (Harl.) (1966) 270 (MED) Þei ceesciden neuere to reduce and brynge yn beestis þat weren lost to þe feeld [v.r. fold] of holy chirche. c1450 ( J. Walton tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Linc. Cathedral 103) 217 (MED) Þi wey may reduce the ageyn [L. te..reducem referat] Vnto þis place. c1475 (?c1400) Apol. Lollard Doctr. (1842) 1 (MED) Preying also ilke man to reduce me in to þe riȝt wey..if I haue gon biside þe wey. 1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid vi. ii. 84 Gif Orpheus mycht reduce agane..From hell his spousis gost. a1535 Bp. J. Fisher Wks. (E.E.T.S.) 439 So must y^e heretickes be reduced vnto y^e wayes of y^e churche. 1563 E. Grindal Remains (Parker Soc.) 263 Excommunication..is the ordinary mean..to reduce men to God. 1565 A. Golding tr. Caesar Martiall Exploytes in Gallia vi. f. 174 Wyth the losse of two Cohorts he reduced the rest to Durocort. 1641 J. Milton Of Prelatical Episc. 3 Doing my utmost endeavour..to reduce them to their firme stations under the standard of the Gospell. 1650 W. Brough Sacred Princ. 413 This..Reduces to a Paradise both of Joy and Innocence. 1726–31 N. Tindal tr. P. Rapin de Thoyras Hist. Eng. (1743) II. xvii. 52 Their attempt to reduce the Protestants within the Pale of the Romish Church. a1727 I. Newton Chronol. Anc. Kingdoms Amended (1728) ii. 223 Bacchus appeased him with wine, and reduced him back into heaven. 1748 J. Dickinson Second Vindic. God's Sovereign Free Grace 90 It concerns you..out of Love..to your wandring Brother..to endeavour to reduce him into the Path of Truth and Safety. b. transitive. Without construction. Obsolete. ΚΠ a1525 Bk. Sevyne Sagis 1321 in W. A. Craigie Asloan MS (1925) II. 42 Than was þe child reducit sone. 1578 J. Lyly Euphues f. 30^v For all his trauails he reduced (I cannot say reclaymed) but a straggeler. 1609 Bible (Douay) I. 2 Sam. xix. 10 How long are you stil, and reduce not the king? 1642 E. Dering Coll. Speeches on Relig. xvi. 83 Reduce, replant our Bishop President. 1684 tr. T. Bonet Guide Pract. Physician Pref. 1 Mercury's Statue was placed in the Cross-ways, to guide Men in the right way, and to reduce them that were out. †10. a. transitive. To bring (a person or thing) to (occasionally towards) a particular state or condition. Also reflexive. Obsolete.In some instances some suggestion of restoration or resumption (cf. sense 6) is retained. ΘΚΠ the world > time > change > change to something else, transformation > transform [verb (transitive)] wendOE forshapeOE workOE awendOE makec1175 turna1200 forwenda1325 change1340 shape1362 transmewc1374 transposec1380 puta1382 convertc1384 exchangea1400 remue?a1400 makea1425 reduce?a1425 removec1425 resolvea1450 transvertc1450 overchangec1480 mew1512 transmutea1513 wring1524 reduct1548 transform1556 innovate1561 metamorphose1576 transume1579 metamorphize1587 transmove1590 transchangea1599 transfashion1601 deflect1613 fordo1624 entail1628 transmutate1632 distila1637 to make much (also little, something, nothing, etc.) of1637 transqualify1652 unconvert1654 simulate1658 spend1668 transverse1687 hocus-pocus1774 mutate1796 fancy1801 to change around1871 metamorphosize1888 catalyse1944 morph1996 ?a1425 MS Hunterian 95 f. 180^v (MED) A þing þat is lasse to þe þrid degre of colde moste be reduced to attemperaunce be hete lasse to þe same degree of hete. 1435 in J. Stevenson Lett. & Papers Illustr. Wars Eng. in France (1864) II. 432 To reduce the parties to that that reson and equite wollen. 1485 W. Caxton tr. Thystorye & Lyf Charles the Grete sig. avj/1 Fraunce was enhaunced & reduced to mageste ryal. a1538 T. Starkey Dial. Pole & Lupset (1989) 69 The prynce ys no thyng in boundage therby, but rather reducyd to true lyberty. 1581 W. Lambarde Eirenarcha (1588) iv. xvi. 582 This Fine (that is reduced to certaintie by the discretion of the Iustices). 1611 M. Smith in Bible (King James) Transl. Pref. ⁋2 Seeking to reduce their Countrey-men to good order and discipline. 1630 Bp. J. Hall Occas. Medit. §xci All things, the more perfect they are, the more doe they reduce themselues towards that vnitie, which is the Centre of all perfection. 1665 J. Webb Vindic. Stone-Heng Restored 76 The Romans..reduced the natural inhabitants from their Barbarism to the society of civil life. 1726 J. Swift Cadenus & Vanessa 21 With pleasing Arts she could reduce Men's Talents to their proper Use. 1792 H. H. Brackenridge Mod. Chivalry I. iv. v. 104 Could it [sc. the institution of the duel] not be reduced nearer to an equality of chances, by proportioning the caliber, or bore of the pistol. b. transitive. With to (occasionally unto). To lead (a person) to adopt or take up a particular belief or opinion; to convince or persuade (a person) of something. Also intransitive. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > belief > school of thought > acknowledge belief [verb (transitive)] > win over infecta1387 reduce1546 disciple1645 discipulize1652 to get over1656 convert1814 1546 S. Gardiner Declar. True Articles f. xii His highnes, was desyrouse of concorde in the truth, rather then the punysshemente of any man that wolde from erroure be reduced to the truth. 1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) I. i. 76/2 At what tyme, the wholsome doctrine of the Gospel allured and reduced the hartes of all sortes of people vnto the true religion of God. 1592 A. Day Eng. Secretorie (rev. ed.) i. sig. E1^v The natures..of the other [being] to withdraw, disswade or reduce to an other meaning. 1685 R. Baxter Paraphr. New Test. Rom. xv. (note) I despair of reducing that Man to the Truth herein, who shall continue of either of these Opinions. 1712 W. Rogers Cruising Voy. 89 This is the way of living in those Cantons, which the Missionaries call Reductions, because, if you'll believe 'em, they have reduc'd them to Christianity by their Preaching. 1780 Times addressed to Freemen of Ireland 46 Some old practitioners of deceit..are sometimes gradually reduced to a belief of their possessing certain virtues, instead of their opposite vices. c. transitive. With infinitive. To lead or induce (a person) to do something. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > will > motivation > persuasion > persuade (a person) [verb (transitive)] > persuade or prevail upon > to do something procurea1325 draw1425 inducec1450 draw1531 obtain1558 reduce?a1560 weighc1571 charma1592 obtain1606 bias1660 gain1681 import1825 wangle1926 ?a1560 L. Digges Geom. Pract.: Pantometria (1571) Pref. sig. Aiv Suche two footed Moules and Todes..maye not possibly..be reduced or moued to taste or sauour any whitte of vertue. 1569 R. Grafton Chron. II. 672 The lorde Marques could by no meanes be reduced to take any part against king Edwarde. 1629 J. Ford Lovers Melancholy i. 9 He knowes no reason, but he may reduce The courtiers to haue women waite on them. 1656 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. II. vi. 72 That which moveth the tast, and reduceth it to act. 1688 T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia i. i. 9 We must reduce him to have as much need of us as possible. 1762 S. Scott Descr. Millenium Hall 95 A pursuit, which, if successful, could not answer his hopes, nor reduce her to render herself wretched by becoming his wife. d. transitive. To place under, or to gather or rally to, a commander, master, etc. Obsolete. ΚΠ 1588 Ld. Burghley Copie Let. to B. Mendoza 7 Gouerned by the principall Noble men..and reduced vnder Captaines of knowledge. 1604 E. Grimeston tr. J. de Acosta Nat. & Morall Hist. Indies vii. xxvii. 584 The greate difficultie they haue founde to reduce those Indians to Christ. 1630 J. Smith True Trav. 49 Some English and Irish..he reduced to his company and to leave the Dutch. †11. a. transitive. To bring back to the memory, mind, etc.; to recall. Obsolete.Common in 16th cent. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > memory > call to mind, recollect [verb (transitive)] i-thenchec897 bethinkOE mingOE thinkOE monelOE umbethinkc1175 to draw (also take) into (or to) memorya1275 minc1330 record1340 revert1340 remembera1382 mindc1384 monishc1384 to bring to mindc1390 remenec1390 me meanetha1400 reducec1425 to call to mind1427 gaincall1434 pense1493 remord?1507 revocate1527 revive1531 cite1549 to call back1572 recall1579 to call to mind (also memory, remembrance)1583 to call to remembrance1583 revoke1586 reverse1590 submonish1591 recover1602 recordate1603 to call up1606 to fetch up1608 reconjure1611 collect1612 remind1615 recollect1631 rememorize1632 retrieve1644 think1671 reconnoitre1729 member1823 reminisce1829 rememorate1835 recomember1852 evoke1856 updraw1879 withcall1901 access1978 the mind > mental capacity > memory > reminder, putting in mind > remind [verb (transitive)] mingOE mina1200 bethink1340 recorda1382 reducec1425 rememberc1425 rememorate1460 mind1524 revive?1564 remembrance1593 recall1595 prompt1600 remind1621 enmind1645 immind1647 refricate1657 commonish1661 flap1790 to touch up1796 c1425 Bk. Found. St. Bartholomew's (1923) 3 (MED) He, wepynge hys dedis and reducyng to mynde [L. ad memoriam reducens] the scapis of his yougth and ignoraunces, prayd to oure lorde for remyssioun. a1450 tr. Aelred of Rievaulx De Institutione Inclusarum (Bodl.) (1984) 7 Holichirche..hath ordeyned..Lente, for to reduce to oure mynde that we ben putte away out of paradyse. ?a1475 Ludus Coventriae (1922) 263 (MED) Delyuere me, fadyr, fro þis peyn Weche is reducyd with ful gret dred. 1513 G. Douglas in tr. Virgil Æneid vii. Prol. 45 Ane similitude of hell, Reducyng to our mynd..Goustly schaddois of eild and grisly deid. 1559 in Knox Hist. Ref. in Wks. (1846) I. 437 It will pleise your Grace reduce to your remembrance, how..we required [etc.]. 1594 G. Peele Battell of Alcazar iii. iv. sig. E^v So freshly to my minde, Hath this yong prince redus'd his fathers wrong. 1624 H. Wotton Elements Archit. in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (1672) 66 Reducing often to my memory that conceit of the Roman Stoick. 1663 J. Heath Chron. Late Intestine War 395 The vapouring and ranting conclusions of this story; which reduceth to memory another terrible occurrence to the Protector. 1710 T. Blomer Full View Dr. Bentley's Let. 104 I will undertake to reduce to his Memory One Example, which plainly contradicts..his vain Brag. 1881 A. J. Duffield tr. M. de Cervantes Don Quixote II. xxx. 49 With this advertence your greatness will easily be able to reduce to your offended memory all that you may be pleased to rehearse. b. transitive. To bring back (the mind, thoughts, a discourse, etc.) from (also to) a subject. Also without construction. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > memory > call to mind, recollect [verb (transitive)] > mind, attention reduce?a1475 recall1592 recollect1598 ?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1871) III. 205 (MED) His disciples cowthe reduce theire myndes from wickede thouȝhtes thro musike and songe. 1563 J. Foxe Actes & Monuments 403/1 Luther diligently reduced the mindes of men, to the sonne of God. a1634 W. Austin Devotionis Augustinianæ Flamma (1635) 292 Then cease,..And with these words reduce thy Thoughts that Roame. 1655 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. I. ii. 15 Pericles..could easily reduce the exercise of his mind from secret obstrusive things to publick popular causes. 1700 M. Prior Carmen Sæculare 12 To Janus Altars and the numerous Throng..Ambitious Muse reduce the roving Song. 1706 tr. J. B. Morvan de Bellegarde Refl. upon Ridicule 58 Whatever Digressions I made, he still reduc'd the Discourse to the same Subject. c. transitive. To bring (a person) back to a recollection of something. Obsolete. rare. ΚΠ ?1541 R. Copland Galen's Fourth Bk. Terapeutyke sig. Fiij, in Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens He reduceth [Fr. reduict] vs to mynde of that he hath sayde before. 12. †a. transitive. To apply or adapt to a purpose. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > order > agreement, harmony, or congruity > adaptation or adjustment > adapt or adjust [verb (transitive)] afaite?c1225 ablea1400 reducec1450 fashion1526 adapt1531 framec1537 handsome1555 accommode1567 apt?1578 square1578 fit1580 coapt1586 commodate1595 suit1595 dispose1602 adjust1611 agence1633 adaptate1638 plya1657 c1450 (c1415) in W. O. Ross Middle Eng. Serm. (1940) 66 (MED) Euery preyere is redressed to þe ese of som man, as þis preyere was reduced to þe ese of hure dowȝtur. ?1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Husbandry f. v^v To reduce and bringe the same text to my purpose: I take it thus. 1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 682/1 All the artycles whiche he hath layde agaynst me I truste to reduce them to my purpose. a1613 T. Bodley Life (1647) 15 I could not busy my selfe to better purpose, then by reducing that place..to the publique use of Students. 1667 T. Sprat Hist. Royal-Soc. 154 If we should require them, immediately to reduce all their labours, to publick, and conspicuous use. 1761 tr. C. Batteux Course Belles Lettres II. ii. 9 That man..should..conform to the matter itself on which he would operate, as being unable to reduce it to his purposes. 1789 J. Fitch Let. 14 Apr. in T. Jefferson Papers (1958) XV. 642 My Experiments [on steam-propulsion]..will this summer be reduced to profitable use in a Stage Boat. b. transitive. With to (formerly †into, †unto). To put (a theory, principle, idea, or the like) into practice, action, etc. Now chiefly U.S. (mainly in Law and scientific contexts). ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > doing > practice, exercise, or doing > practise or carry on [verb (transitive)] > exercise or put into practice (principle or quality) kithec1330 usec1330 apply1395 execute14.. in urec1420 exercisea1513 to put into (also in) practice1553 reduce1581 to make practice of1623 exsert1665 exert1682 1581 T. Rogers tr. N. Hemmingsen Faith of Church Militant i. xl. 335 Although the vse of the sacrifice of Christ, is wel nigh seene in the application: yet the efficacie and power thereof is more apparent, when the knoweledge is reduced vnto practise as it were. a1628 C. Brooke Poems (1872) 209 Of armes and arts, he had the theorie, Which he reduc't to practise. 1668 J. Howe Blessednesse of Righteous 116 Heretofore some gracious dispositions have been to seek..when there was most need and occasion for their being reduced into act. 1709 A. Pope Let. 7 May (1956) I. 57 I thought your Observation..not a Rule without Exceptions, nor that ever it had been reduc'd to Practise. 1799 W. Godwin St. Leon IV. ii. 59 When my plan became known, and I had already in a few instances reduced my maxims into practice. 1818 Edinb. Advertiser 10 July 20/2 When..have doctrines of this sort been reduced to practice, without leading through anarchy to Military Despotism! a1871 G. Grote Fragm. Ethical Subj. (1876) iv. 81 Dispositions..reduced into action. 1885 Harper's Mag. Nov. 963/1 The great statesman who..was the first to..reduce to practice those principles of revenue, credit, and finance. 1916 T. Roosevelt Fear God & take your own Part p. xiii Merely treating these eternal principles as having their place forever in the realm of abstract thought and never to be reduced to action. 1927 Michigan Law Rev. 25 889 Here the proponent has not reduced his idea to practice as in the case of an inventor. 1960 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 10 June d38/5 (advt.) Must have experience and talent in original engineering design in reducing concepts to practice. 2007 Melbourne Univ. Law Rev. (Nexis) 31 Originating inventions..consist of an idea that is subsequently reduced to practice. †c. transitive. To bring to a determination, to settle, arrange. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > judge, determine [verb (transitive)] > conclude resolvec1565 conclude1586 pitch1610 reduce1616 to set at rest1826 1616 Sir C. Mountagu in Buccleuch MSS (Hist. MSS Comm.) (1899) I. 250 They say they have now reduced it to have the money brought in, in eight years. †d. transitive. With to. To bring into conformity or agreement with a standard. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > order > agreement, harmony, or congruity > adaptation or adjustment > adapt or adjust [verb (transitive)] > bring into conformity conform1377 redressa1538 uniforma1586 quader1588 reduce1621 quadrate?1630 comply1642 assimilate1664 1621 Acts Parl. Scotl. (1816) IV. 632/1 Quhairby all the measoris that ar now vseit may be reducit to the conformitie off the said [sc. Linlithgow] measure. 1662 B. Gerbier Brief Disc. Princ. Building 38 By the not reducing whatsoever is represented to the true Lines of Perspective. 1703 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion II. iv. 52 It admitted an interpretation of reducing the Government of the Church in Scotland to this of England. 1799 A. Walker Syst. Familiar Philos. x. 481 If solar and sidereal time could be reduced to equal time, all the celestial motions, and all duration, would be reduced to one standard. e. transitive. Chiefly Astronomy. To modify (an observation) so that it is applicable to a particular place or point; to correct by making allowances for position or other modifying circumstances. Cf. reduction n. 13. ΘΚΠ the world > the universe > cosmology > science of observation > observe [verb (transitive)] > correct reduce1633 1633 H. Gellibrand in T. James Strange Voy. App. sig. R3 The [moon's] true place at midnight reduced to the Ecliptique. 1748 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 45 23 By which means I was able to reduce all the Observations of the same Star to the same Point. 1812 R. Woodhouse Elem. Treat. Astron. x. 73 Observations, therefore, seen at the surface, must be reduced to the center. 1839 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 1838 i. 22 The observations with the barometer are complete up to June last, all the observations having been reduced. 1881 Nature No. 625. 594 To collect..all information on this subject, and finally to reduce the Indian observations. 1934 H. S. Jones Gen. Astron. (ed. 2) v. 99 To reduce the apparent place to the mean place at a definite epoch corrections must be applied for precession, nutation, aberration, annual parallax, and for the proper motion of the star. 2004 D. Pugh Changing Sea Levels 246 (Gloss.) National tidal datum epoch, the specific 19-year period..over which sea level observations are taken and reduced to obtain mean values for datum definition. †13. a. transitive. With to, into. To take back, trace, refer (a thing) to its origin, author, etc. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > existence and causation > causation > source or origin > originate or be a source of [verb (transitive)] > attribute to an author or source refera1398 reducec1454 father?1499 entitle1550 intitule1559 foist1598 attribute1599 mother1645 authoridate1652 accredit1864 c1454 R. Pecock Folewer to Donet 85 (MED) Loke þat þou resolue and reduce into þis ground al what þou hast forto iuge forto haue moral goodnes. c1475 tr. Henri de Mondeville Surgery (Wellcome) f. 153^v (MED) If ony cause go afore þe discrasynge þat is to come or ony oþir of þe forseid accidentis, it may be reducid to summe of þe causis of þe forseid accidentis. a1500 tr. Thomas à Kempis De Imitatione Christi (Trin. Dublin) (1893) 139 (MED) Grace reduciþ all þinges to god, of whom þei welliþ oute groundely & originaly. ?1556 E. P. tr. T. Cranmer Confut. Verities ii. sig. G^v Al that he sayeth, he muste reduce it to the firste beginning of goddes aucthorite. 1612 F. Bacon Ess. (new ed.) 43 Reduce things to the first institution, and observe wherein and how they have degenerate. 1660 R. Coke Elements Power & Subjection 47 in Justice Vindicated All regular motions and actions may be reduced to one certain beginning. 1714 tr. I. Barrow Euclide's Elements (rev. ed.) Pref. Some principal Rules of practical Geometry, reducing them to their original Fountains. 1766 J. Cleland Way to Things by Words 87 He will find many words extremely difficult, and some impossible to reduce to their origin. b. transitive. To interpret, analyse. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > meaning > explanation, exposition > expound, explain [verb (transitive)] arecchec885 unloukOE overrunOE sutelec1000 trahtnec1000 unfolda1050 belayc1175 openc1175 onopena1200 accountc1300 undo?a1366 remenea1382 interpret1382 unwrap1387 exploitc1390 enlumine1393 declarec1400 expoundc1400 unplait?c1400 enperc1420 planea1425 clearc1440 exponec1440 to lay outc1440 to give (also carry) lightc1449 unwind1482 expose1483 reducea1500 manifest1530 explicate1531 explaina1535 unlock?1536 dilucidate1538 elucidate1538 illustrate1538 rechec1540 explicate1543 illucidate1545 enucleate1548 unsnarl1555 commonstrate1563 to lay forth1577 straighten1577 unbroid1577 untwist1577 decipherc1586 illuminate1586 enlighten1587 resolvec1592 cipher1594 eliquidate1596 to take (a person) with one1599 rivelc1600 ravel1604 unbowel1606 unmist1611 extricate1614 unbolta1616 untanglea1616 enode1623 unperplexa1631 perspicuate1634 explata1637 unravel1637 esclarea1639 clarify1642 unweave1642 detenebrate1646 dismystery1652 undecipher1654 unfork1654 unparadox1654 reflect1655 enodate1656 unmysterya1661 liquidatea1670 recognize1676 to clear upa1691 to throw sidelight on1726 to throw (also cast, shed) light on (also upon)1731 eclaircise1754 irradiate1864 unbraid1880 predigest1905 to get (something) straight1920 disambiguate1960 demystify1963 a1500 (?a1450) Gesta Romanorum (BL Add. 9066) (1879) 216 Or els it [sc. a fable] may be reduced on a nother maner. †14. a. transitive. To bring back to a place. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > space > place > placing or fact of being placed in (a) position > place or put in a position [verb (transitive)] > bring into a position reduce?a1475 enter1563 land1649 ?a1475 (?a1425) in tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1882) VIII. App. 488 (MED) Newe statutes were ordeynede..of the staple to be reducede from Mirbonrach to Caleys. 1515 in E. Beveridge Burgh Rec. Dunfermline (1917) 192 Gif thai turs ony cornis furtht of the said towne..fredome to raduce and inbring the samyn to the said burghe. b. transitive. Scottish. To bring (coin) in again to the mint. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > trade and finance > money > coining > coin (money) [verb (transitive)] > specific processes reduce1581 crenel1697 mill1724 crenate1868 to strike up1883 1581 Reg. Privy Council Scotl. 1st Ser. III. 463 The late silver cunyie..sould be reducit and brocht in agane, to be cunyeit of new. 15. Chiefly Law. †a. transitive. To bring (an estate, title, property, etc.) to a person by way of acquisition. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > law > legal right > [verb (transitive)] > bring a right into possession > bring possession of right or thing to someone reduce1491 1491 Act 7 Hen. VII c. 1. §1 The King..hath determyned hym self to passe..in to his Realme of Fraunce and to reduce the possession thereof..to hym and his heires Kinges of Englond. 1579 G. Fenton tr. F. Guicciardini Hist. Guicciardin xiv. 778 He was possessed with a vehement desire to recouer Parma and Plaisanca, and no lesse ambicion to reduce to him the state of Ferrara. a1626 F. Bacon Elements Common Lawes (1630) 2 The admission of my Clerke, whereby the inheritance is reduced to mee, is the act of the Ordinary. 1682 A. Colquitt Mod. Rep. 17 If at the time of his death he shall have a Son, &c...it [sc. an estate] is reduced to him upon a Condition and Contingency. 1762 J. Salthouse Wood's Compl. Body Conveyancing II. 819 To reduce and revest the Inheritance of certain Lands and Tenements unto him and his Heirs. b. transitive. To bring into (also to) possession. Chiefly U.S. in later use. ΘΚΠ society > law > legal possession > possess in law [verb (transitive)] > bring something into possession reduce1766 society > law > legal right > [verb (transitive)] > bring a right into possession reduce1830 1657 R. Watson Hist. Coll. Eccles. Affairs 130 Prayers and tears were not wont to be the onely arms of this new Church, and though they had no other at present, yet some course must be taken to reduce them into possession of such a power. 1766 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. II. 433 Unless he reduces them to possession, by exercising some act of ownership upon them, no property vests in him. 1830 T. B. Macaulay in Edinb. Rev. Jan. 542 The laws of all nations sanction, in certain cases, the transfer of rights not yet reduced into possession. 1884 Law Times Rep. 50 199/2 All that the husband has a right to do is to reduce such property into possession if he can. 1918 Virginia Law Reg. 4 442 He..became the owner of all her choses in action, provided he reduced them into possession, actual or constructive, during the coverture. 1983 Amer. Bar Found. Res. Jrnl. 8 482 Anyone with permission to enter land could take game, thus transforming it from the property of the landowner to the property of the person who reduced it to possession. †16. a. transitive. To take back (a reckoning). Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the mind > possession > taking > take [verb (transitive)] > take again or back > take back resume1404 to take again1474 revoke1526 reclaim1530 to fetch again1535 to take back1568 reducec1595 reassume1609 revicta1656 reassert1704 pull1985 c1595 Capt. Wyatt in G. F. Warner Voy. R. Dudley to W. Indies (1899) 57 The master himselfe was deceaved in the swifte gate of our shipp, and caused our Generall to reduce his reckninge back some 50 leagues. b. transitive. To carry back to a more remote point in time. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the world > time > relative time > the past > [verb (transitive)] > carry or cast back into the past reducea1620 antedate1633 to carry back1644 retroject1850 a1620 M. Fotherby Atheomastix (1622) ii. xii. §4. 342 But Plutarch himselfe reduceth it higher; not allowing of any mortall man to bee the first inuentor. c. transitive. To assign (a person) to a more recent date. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the world > time > reckoning of time > chronology > arrange chronologically [verb (transitive)] > assign to a certain date > to a wrong, later, or earlier date misdate1577 antedate1609 to pull back1610 redate1611 transtime1647 reduce1714 anachronize1831 predate1854 down-date1949 1714 T. Hearne Ductor Historicus (ed. 3) I. iii. 398 The Chaldæan Traditions carried the Age of the first Zoroaster very high,..but the Examinations made by Learned Men reduc'd him at most to the Age of Nimrod. III. To convert, transform, render. 17. a. To convert (a substance) into a different state or form. (a) transitive. Chemistry and Metallurgy. To transform (a substance) into a different physical state or form, esp. a calx, by heat or some other chemical process; to decompose or refine (a compound) into a simpler substance. Frequently with to, into. Now chiefly historical.In many instances it is hard to tell to what extent the sense of transformation is modified by connotations of restoration, refinement, or diminution, as for example in ‘reducing’ a metal to a calx, formerly interpreted as driving off grosser constituents (though in fact it was usually what is now understood as oxidation), or in ‘reducing’ a mineral to a metal. Cf. reduction n. 2b, 11a. Cf. also sense 17b. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > chemistry > chemical reactions or processes > subject to chemical reactions or processes [verb (transitive)] > subject to named chemical reaction or process > subject to miscellaneous other processes reduce?a1425 weaken1540 projecta1550 brown1570 spiritualize1593 colliquate1603 redisperse1621 imbibe1626 educe1651 to cant off1658 part1663 regalize1664 dint1669 roche1679 subtilizea1722 neutralize1744 develop1756 evolve1772 extricate1790 separate1805 unburn1815 leach1860 methylate1864 nitrate1872 nitre1880 sweeten1885 deflocculate1909 hybridize1959 ?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 35 (MED) Whan þai [sc. apostemes] ar vnwisely infrigidate..þan þe subtile is resolued & þe grosse petrified, i. stony, & reduced in to melancolie. a1475 Bk. Quinte Essence (1889) 9 In þe corusible ȝe schal fynde þe gold calcyned and reducid into erþe. 1559 P. Morwyng tr. C. Gesner Treasure of Euonymus 112 There is also an other way more subtill, to reduce euery element to his perfection or quintessence, but it must be presuposed that euery element be first iustified. 1590 W. Clever Flower of Phisicke 118 Such medicines are easily reduced, and manifested in their owne nature. 1605 T. Tymme tr. J. Du Chesne Pract. Chymicall & Hermeticall Physicke i. xiii. 56 The black feces..being reduced..into a calxe. 1681 R. Boyle New Exper. Icy Noctiluca 11 When after having so many Days kept this Glass stopt, at last it would no longer shine of it self, we supposed it to be reduced to the condition of a Phosphorus of the first sort. 1755 Philos. Trans. 1754 (Royal Soc.) 48 837 The oleose part of the spirit of wine..reducing the glass in some measure back again to its original antimonial state. 1785 Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 1 525 Steel is sometimes made by fusion of ore or pig-iron. The method is similar to that of reducing pig-iron to malleable iron. 1804 tr. P. F. Tingry Painter & Varnisher's Guide 301 Smalt, or vitreous oxide of cobalt, is saffer reduced to blue glass by the action of a violent fire. 1884 W. H. Greenwood Steel & Iron vi. 92 Since ferrous carbonates are reduced to the state of ferric oxide [etc.]. 1991 Descant Summer 121 According to the alchemists, the base metals cannot be transmuted into silver or gold without being first reduced to their prima materia. 1994 W. R. Newman Gehennical Fire iv. 143 To the helmontian, two substances that had undergone transmutation could not be reduced into their original constituents. (b) transitive. gen. To transform to (also into) powder, pulp, fragments, etc., by grinding, crushing, wearing down, or the like. ΚΠ 1558 W. Ward tr. G. Ruscelli Secretes Alexis of Piemount vi. f. 111 Take Emerill, that men burnishe swordes or armoure with, and braye it very small..and temper it, or reduce it into dow or paste, with the saied Magistra. 1580 T. Newton Approoued Med. f. 80 The substaunce of it [sc. gold] reduced to powder, comforteth the heart. 1662 J. Davies tr. A. Olearius Voy. & Trav. J. Albert de Mandelslo 15 in Voy. & Trav. Ambassadors They reduce [Fr. reduisent] dates into a paste, and it serves them instead of bread. 1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant i. 39 Their Bodies being reduced into Ashes,..God shall create them a-new. 1725 R. Bradley Chomel's Dictionaire Œconomique at White-Honey-Charge Continue boiling till the Roots and Herbs be reduced to a Mash..throwing away the gross Substance. 1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 825 Reduce the tartrate and sugar to powder. 1837 W. Irving Adventures Capt. Bonneville III. i. 9 The cowish, also, or biscuit root, about the size of a walnut, which they reduce to a very palatable flour. 1915 J. Buchan Thirty-nine Steps iv. 91 He..flung half a dozen of his suits before me, for my own had been pretty well reduced to rags. 1927 M. H. Avram Rayon Industry 259 In this operation..the cellulose is reduced to very finely divided particles called crumbs. 1945 J. F. Lockwood Flour Milling xvii. 283 The wheat could..be rapidly and roughly reduced to flour by setting the two stones very close together. 1994 Amer. Spectator Sept. 45/1 Then came more grunting and squashing and pulping until the onions were reduced to a mushy, dirty-brown mixture. (c) transitive. Without construction: to break up (soil) into fine particles. Now chiefly U.S. ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > breaking up land > break up land [verb (transitive)] > break up clods clodc1420 clot1483 reduce1763 1763 Museum Rusticum (1764) 1 144 The land cannot be stirred too deep:..the more the earth is reduced the more nourishment will it afford. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 604 It is the custom..to reduce the cloddy surface well by means of harrowing. 1848 Amer. Farmer Nov. 140/2 Land intended for wheat..should be so prepared by harrowing, dragging, and rolling, as to thoroughly reduce and pulverize all clods. 1891 W. J. Malden Tillage iii. 16 The teams can be set to work to reduce the soil finely, so that the couch will be set free from the dirt. 1976 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 20 Mar. 12/4 Let it [sc. soil] stand..until it is nice and crumbly.., before you spade it up and start raking it down to reduce clods. 2002 Arable Farming (Nexis) 16 Feb. s14 Reduce clods, depress stones and firm loose, puffy seedbeds by rolling. b. transitive. Chemistry and Metallurgy. To convert (ore, calx, etc.) into metal, esp. by smelting; to smelt (a metal). Cf. reduction n. 11b.In later use passing into sense 17c. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > chemistry > chemical reactions or processes > undergo chemical reactions or processes [verb] > undergo chemical reactions or processes (named) > undergo or subject to reduction reduce1666 society > occupation and work > industry > working with specific materials > working with metal > work with metal [verb (transitive)] > extract from ore > smelt try13.. smelt1543 run1650 reduce1666 eliquate1759 resmelt1804 beneficiate1873 1666 R. Boyle Origine Formes & Qualities Prœmial Disc. sig. A6 Melting the Oares to reduce them into perfect metal. 1741 tr. J. A. Cramer Elements Art of assaying Metals i. 51 When the refractory Calx of Iron is to be reduced by a great and long lasting Fire. 1758 A. Reid tr. P. J. Macquer Elements Theory & Pract. Chym. I. 361 When the ore of an Iron mine is found difficult to reduce, it is usually neglected even though it be rich. 1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 687 By the year 1788, several attempts had been made to reduce iron ore with coaked coal. 1866 J. E. T. Rogers Hist. Agric. & Prices I. xxiii. 599 In the infancy of the metallurgic arts lead was much more easily reduced than iron. 1922 T. M. Lowry Inorg. Chem. xxxiv. 657 The preparation of metals such as chromium, which cannot be reduced from their ores by means of carbon. 1955 Sci. News Let. 7 May 297/2 Using heats as high as 3,100 degrees Fahrenheit, quartzite rock is reduced with coke and charcoal. 1991 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 23 June 45 The Chinese had been using a hearth and bellows furnace to heat charcoal to such a temperature that nickel sulphite ore was reduced to an alloy called white copper or ‘pei tung’. c. transitive. Chemistry. To cause to undergo reduction (reduction n. 11c); to lower the proportion of oxygen in or increase the proportion of hydrogen in (a compound). In extended use: to convert (an atom or element) to a lower oxidation state, to add electrons to (an atom, molecule, etc.). Also intransitive: to undergo reduction. Cf. oxidize v. 1a.Not always distinguishable from the metallurgical sense ( 17b), since to convert an oxide ore to the metal involves subjecting it to chemical reduction. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > chemistry > chemical reactions or processes > subject to chemical reactions or processes [verb (transitive)] > subject to named chemical reaction or process > cause to undergo reduction reduce1800 1789 R. Kerr tr. A. Lavoisier Elements Chem. 159 All those [metallic substances] which have a stronger affinity to oxygen, than charcoal possesses, are incapable of being reduced to the metallic state.] 1800 Philos. Mag. 7 343 Hydrogen gas, when heated, or in its nascent state, reduces metallic oxyds. 1834 Penny Cycl. II. 106/2 When antimonic acid is subjected to a strong red heat, it loses oxygen and is reduced to antimonious acid. 1873 C. H. Ralfe Outl. Physiol. Chem. 202 Uric acid also has the power of reducing cupric sulphate. 1890 W. Jago Inorg. Chem. iii. 48 There are other examples of reduction in which the bodies are simply reduced to a lower stage of oxidation. 1935 J. W. Mellor Comprehensive Treat. Inorg. & Theoret. Chem. XIV. lxvii. 608 Cobaltic fluoride in hydrogen at 200°..is reduced to cobaltous fluoride. 1971 Nature 1 Jan. 13/1 The resulting electrons are used to reduce carbon dioxide to carbohydrate. 1998 E. Cooney et al. in D. L. Ford Toxicity Reduction v. 169 Under mildly reducing conditions..ferric oxide reduces to ferrous oxide. 2000 M. Clugston & R. Flemming Adv. Chem. xiii. 218 Iodine is a suitable oxidant to accept the electrons, itself being reduced to iodide ions. 18. a. (a) transitive. To bring under or organize into (esp. a specified number of) classes, categories, heads, etc. Also with to (formerly †in).In some cases passing into sense 2. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > order > put in (proper) order [verb (transitive)] > reduce to order > give structure to or organize edifya1340 beset1413 reduce?a1425 institutea1538 compile1596 to deraign battle1596 modelize1600 skillc1610 organize1632 formalize1646 model1652 modulize1656 structure1664 economize1691 regiment1698 structurize1912 pattern1967 ?a1425 MS Hunterian 95 f. 104 (MED) Summe autours reducen þe cure of enpostumes in two manere diuiciouns, ffor þei sette one maner cure of alle hote enpostumes & anoþer cure of alle colde enpostumes. a1513 J. Irland Meroure of Wyssdome (1965) II. 62 And to that artikle is reducit the faith of the sacramentis of halykyrk. 1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. DDDvi^v All the counselles of our lorde Iesu Christe may be reduced to these .ix. 1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) I. 8/1 The said Ezechias also reduced y^e Priestes and Leuites into their orders. 1612 J. Brinsley Ludus Lit. xxi. 248 The way might be more compendious by the rootes reduced to Classes. 1647 T. May Hist. Parl. Pref. sig. A3 I will only professe to follow that one Rule, Truth, to which all the rest..may be reduced. 1653 H. Phillippes Purchasers Pattern 1 Many things..may all be reduced to these three generall heads. 1713 R. Steele Englishman No. 7. 43 Those who set up for Criticks in Poetry..may be reduced to two Classes. 1718 Free-thinker No. 52. 1 These Presages..may be reduced under Seven Principal Denominations. 1800 T. T. Biddulph Hezekiah’s Charge to Congregation 21 The multiplied sacrifices and offerings..may all, though variously denominated, be reduced to two classes. 1829 A. Jamieson Dict. Mech. Sci. II. 656/1 These [sc. meteors] may be reduced under three classes, viz. fire balls, falling or shooting stars, and ignes fatui. 1885 Times 16 Sept. 6/6 The advantages of sliding scales as regulating wages might be reduced to two heads. 1928 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 34 219 The plurality of ‘social dimensions’..can for the sake of simplification be reduced into two principal classes: the vertical and the horizontal. 2001 India Business Insight (Nexis) 11 June Costs could be reduced under three heads, depreciation, manpower and electrical expenses. (b) transitive. Usually with to, into. To assign or refer (something) to a particular class. Now rare. ΚΠ 1653 T. Urquhart Logopandecteision i. 16 To declare what part of speech it is; or if a Noun, unto what predicament or class it is to be reduced. 1697 J. Potter Archæologiæ Græcæ I. ii. xiv. 287 Hither are to be reduc'd some other ways of Divination, by things made use of at Sacrifices. 1727 S. Switzer Pract. Gardiner iv. xxxix. 205 Of kin to the onion, is porrum, the leek... And unto the same class also may be reduced allium, the garlick. 1798 T. Brown Observ. Zoonomia ii. 69 There are many phenomena of life, which cannot be reduced to any of the four classes of sensorial motions. 1851 R. G. Latham Man & his Migrations iv. 116 Their language has been reduced to no class, and their peculiar habits place them in strong contrast with most other South Americans. 1920 S. Alexander Space, Time & Deity II. iii. i. 7 Such processes though they may be reduced to the class of vital processes are so distinct from the remainder of the class that they hold a privileged position in it. b. transitive. To subject to (formerly †into) an arrangement, order, or rule; to bring to order. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > order > put in (proper) order [verb (transitive)] > reduce to order reduce1567 methodizea1586 correct1594 method1607 1567 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure II. xv. f. 96^v Y^e Roman Campe, that then was in great disorder. Which with greate diligence hee reassembled, and reduced the same to order. 1666 S. Pepys Diary 25 Dec. (1972) VII. 421 Reducing the names of all my books to an Alphabet. 1729 Bp. J. Butler Serm. Self-deceit in Wks. (1874) II. 125 A great part..of the intercourse amongst mankind, cannot be reduced to fixed determinate rules. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters i. Ded. The rules..were..reduced to the just order in which they now stand. 1837 W. Whewell Hist. Inductive Sci. I. 217 When one set of anomalies had been discovered and reduced to rule. 1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) IV. 21 The infinite would be no longer infinite, if limited or reduced to measure. 1958 F. E. Sparshott Enq. Goodnesss ii. 31 To discover how far existing notions about goodness and badness..can be reduced to some kind of system and shown to conform to general principles. 1962 A. J. M. Milne Social Philos. Eng. Idealism i. 21 A theory in terms of which the manifold variety of things and events in the world are observed, classified, correlated and reduced to order and relative simplicity. 1992 J. M. Kelly Short Hist. Western Legal Theory vii. 262 Efforts..to reduce to order a heterogeneous civil law, inherited with a bewildering penumbra of local custom and Roman accretions from the Middle Ages. †c. transitive. Without construction: to assign to the appropriate class or classes; to classify, categorize; to bring into proper order. Obsolete. ΚΠ 1594 J. Smythe Certen Instr. Militarie 98 Such great squadrons as I haue before described, reduced, and formed. 1668 Bp. J. Wilkins Ess. Real Char. Ep. Ded. sig. a^v The species of Natural bodies..if they were (so far as they are yet known and discovered) distinctly reduced and described. 1692 J. Ray in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eminent Literary Men (1843) (Camden) 203 He hath abundance of Jamaica plants, which if in your Catalogue it is very difficult to reduce them, especially his Felices. 19. transitive. With to (formerly †into). To convert or transform so as to have a certain form or character. Also reflexive. ΘΚΠ the world > existence and causation > causation > [verb (transitive)] > bring (a person or thing) into a state or condition > reduce to a state or condition reduce?a1425 reduct1548 perduce1563 revoke1605 the world > time > change > change to something else, transformation > transform [verb (transitive)] > in character or function reduce?a1425 convert1557 resolve?a1560 transnature1567 transnaturalize1631 transmutate1632 transdignify1655 process1881 denaturate1895 denature1907 ?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 97 If sich cancrose vlcerez be not cured wiþ alum water..it pleseþ..þat þai be cauterized... And with þat her rounde forme..be reduced to alonge. 1558 W. Bullein Govt. Healthe (title page) Reduced into the forme of a Dialogue, for the better vnderstanding of thunlearned. 1590 J. Smythe Certain Disc. Weapons 12 Whilest the Piquers and other weapons doo reduce themselues into forme vnder their Ensignes. a1593 C. Marlowe Massacre at Paris (c1600) sig. B3^v I knew the Organon to be confusde, And I reduc'd it into better forme. 1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 61 Cumin reduced into the form of trochisks or nose-tents, put vp into the nosthrils, stancheth bloud. 1639 J. Woodall Surgeons Mate (rev. ed.) Pref. sig. A6^v Galen..reduced the Science [sc. medicine] into a more perfect Art. 1662 J. Davies tr. A. Olearius Voy. & Trav. Ambassadors 216 The Ambassador ordered me to reduce Persia and Turkie into one Map. a1693 A. Wood Hist. & Antiq. Univ. Oxf. (1786) 56 They began..to pull down their buildings, which stood without any method, and to reduce them..into a quadrangular pile. 1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iv. i. 16 A second Word, much harder to be pronounced; but reducing it to the English Orthography, may be spelt thus, Houyhnhnm. 1763 Brit. Mag. 4 103 A gentleman..produced a circular piece of ice..which he reduced to a lentile form. 1836 H. Rogers Life J. Howe ii. 26 Nevertheless, it may be very useful..to attempt to reduce it to such a form. 1859 J. Tomes Syst. Dental Surg. 344 The rose-head is very serviceable in reducing to a cylindrical form the ragged opening of a small cavity. 1881 Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining Engineers 1880–1 9 132 Finishing-rolls, the rolls of a train which receive the bar from the roughing-rolls, and reduce it to its finished shape. 1947 T. J. Reynolds & L. E. Kent Structural Steelwork (ed. 8) iii. 29 The mill shown in the foreground..has reduced the steel to the form of a plate. 1972 Amer. Hist. Rev. 77 1465/2 It seems to consist at times of disintegrated notes that were never reduced to a comprehensible form. 2007 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 21 Apr. 37 Once each sprawling transcript was reduced to a manageable shape it was submitted to the writer. 20. †a. transitive. To put (a text, etc.) into another language; to translate, render. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > meaning > explanation, exposition > translation > translate [verb (transitive)] setc888 wendeOE turnc1175 writec1275 drawa1325 translatea1375 expound1377 takea1382 interpret1382 transpose1390 remue?a1400 renderc1400 put?a1425 to draw outa1450 reducec1450 compile1483 redige?1517 make1529 traducea1533 traduct1534 converta1538 do1561 to set out1597 transcribe1639 throw1652 metaphrase1868 versionize1874 c1450 (c1440) S. Scrope in tr. C. de Pisan Epist. of Othea (Longleat) (1904) 2 I..take vpon me..to translate ovte off Frenche tong..and to reduce into owre modyr tong a Book off Knyghthode. 1483 W. Caxton in tr. A. Chartier Curial sig. j At whos Instance & requeste I haue reduced it in to Englyssh. 1513 G. Douglas in tr. Virgil Æneid i. Prol. 404 Lo he reprevis..Ay word by word to reduce ony thing. a1533 Ld. Berners tr. A. de Guevara Golden Bk. M. Aurelius (1546) sig. Oo.vij The translatours, that haue laboryously reduced this treatyce out of Greke into Latin. 1581 W. Lambarde Eirenarcha i. i. 4 Bracton..reduced the body of our law into Latine. 1609 J. Dowland in tr. A. Ornithoparcus Micrologus Ep. Ded. To present this Father of Musicke Ornithoparchus to your worthyest Patronage, whose approoued Workes in my trauailes..I haue reduced into our English Language. 1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. xii. 442/1 All which variety of Phisical names may be reduced into English termes. 1778 T. Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry II. xv. 364 He reduced a dialogue of Lucian into English verse, much after the manner of an interlude. 1845 T. Corser in R. James Iter Lancastrense Notes 45 Robert of Shrewsbury's Life of St. Wenefrede was translated or ‘reduced’ into English by William Caxton. b. (a) transitive. To put into or commit to writing. Formerly also with †by. Chiefly Law in later use. ΘΚΠ society > communication > writing > [verb (transitive)] > set down in writing adighteOE to set on writea900 dightc1000 writeOE brevea1225 layc1330 indite1340 take1418 annote1449 printa1450 scribe1465 redact?a1475 reduce1485 letter1504 recite1523 to commit to writing (also paper)1529 pen1530 reduce?1533 token up1535 scripture1540 titulea1550 to set down1562 quote1573 to put down1574 paper1594 to write down1594 apprehend1611 fix1630 exarate1656 depose1668 put1910 1485 W. Caxton tr. Thystorye & Lyf Charles the Grete sig. aij/1 Al thynges that ben reduced by wrytyng ben wryton to our doctryne. 1566 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure I. v. f. 13 Certaine officers wer appoincted..with soueraigne aucthoritie and power, to reduce the same [sc. laws] into writyng. 1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Bbb ^v This parte of knowledge we doe reporte also as deficient: not but that it is practised too much, but it hath not beene reduced to writinge. View more context for this quotation 1659 P. Heylyn Examen Historicum i. 230 Why was not the Protestation reduced into writing? 1712 J. Swift Proposal for Eng. Tongue 23 All which reduced to Writing would entirely confound Orthography. 1747 in Colonial Rec. Pennsylvania (1851) V. 78 Having reduc'd into writing the Transaction..touching the Delivery of the three Negroes. 1875 H. J. S. Maine Lect. Early Hist. Inst. i. 10 A small body of Aryan customs reduced to writing in the fifth century b.c. 1942 D. O. Bowman Public Control Labor Relations i. 50 There was no rule promulgated that any agreement reached had to be reduced to writing. 1992 D. McClean Internat. Judicial Assistance iii. 75 The foreign court is asked to notify the English court or any appointed agents of the parties of the date and place of the examination, and to reduce the evidence into writing. †(b) transitive. Without construction: to set down or record in writing. Also: to put down or draw in a map. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > communication > writing > [verb (transitive)] > set down in writing adighteOE to set on writea900 dightc1000 writeOE brevea1225 layc1330 indite1340 take1418 annote1449 printa1450 scribe1465 redact?a1475 reduce1485 letter1504 recite1523 to commit to writing (also paper)1529 pen1530 reduce?1533 token up1535 scripture1540 titulea1550 to set down1562 quote1573 to put down1574 paper1594 to write down1594 apprehend1611 fix1630 exarate1656 depose1668 put1910 the world > the earth > earth sciences > geography > map-making > [verb (intransitive)] reduce?1533 ?1533 G. Du Wes Introductorie for to lerne Frenche sig. Aiv To reduce and to put by writtynge the maner how I haue proceded. 1576 A. Fleming tr. Cicero in Panoplie Epist. 46 He..being nowe inflamed with the admiration of your martiall exploites,..is very desireous, to reduce them in a Chronicle. 1603 G. Owen Descr. Penbrokshire (1891) i. 5 Amonge diuerse other thinges of the xiii Sheres of Wales reduced according to arte. 21. In Mathematics and numerical contexts. a. transitive. To express (a number or quantity) in terms of another denomination or unit. Chiefly with to or into. Cf. reduction n. 9a. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > change a number or quantity [verb (transitive)] > from one denomination to another reduce1539 convert1594 1539 J. Husee Let. 14 Nov. in Lisle Papers (P.R.O.: SP 3/4) f. 89 Tyl suche tyme as the commyssioneres hathe made a rentall perfyt and redywcyd the same in sterlinge monye. 1594 T. Blundeville Exercises i. xxvii. f. 34^v Then in like order reduce your Diuisor into the smallest Fraction, and you shall find the totall summe. a1690 S. Jeake Λογιστικηλογία (1696) 156 To reduce the Denominations of Measure, Weight,..&c. of one Kind or Countrey to another. 1766 Compl. Farmer at Surveying If the content to be reduced, be cast up into acres, roods, and perches, reduce all into perches, and then in other respects work as before. 1812 J. Smyth Pract. of Customs (1821) 9 Mogadore Tare is commonly reduced to British pounds by adding 20 per cent...to the Invoice weight. 1879 Manufacturer & Builder Jan. 3/2 The figures have been reduced from kilograms to pounds on the basis that 1 kilogram is 2 pounds, which is slightly erroneous. 1927–9 H. Wheeler Waverley Children's Dict. VI. 3591/1 We reduce pounds to shillings by multiplying them by twenty. 1992 J. Grant Compl. Canvasworker's Guide (ed. 2) ii. 14 The number of panels, times the width of each one less a ½-inch seam allowance, divided by 12 to reduce the figure to feet rather than inches. b. transitive. With to. To convert (a fraction) into a different form, esp. one with the lowest possible values of numerator and denominator. Cf. reduction n. 9b. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > number > ratio or proportion > fraction > reduce fraction [verb (transitive)] reduce1557 abbreviate1562 1557 R. Record Whetstone of Witte sig. Ai^v I perceive, you call it a parte, when the numerator in the fraction (reduced to the smalleste) is an unitie. 1678 J. Hawkins Cocker's Arithm. xix. 248 Reduce a fraction to its lowest terms at the first work. 1705 E. Scarburgh Eng. Euclide 180 (note) In all Superparticulars the Numerator is, or may ever be reduced to an Unite. 1823 J. Mitchell Dict. Math. & Physical Sci. 419/2 Reduce the compound quantity to its lowest denomination, and the whole integer to the same denomination. 1914 E. Oberg Arithm. Simplified (‘Machinery’ Ref. Bk. No. 137) iv. 42 The fraction on either side of the equal sign reduced to its lowest terms is called the ratio of the proportion. 2001 N.Y. Times 31 May b8/1 To add fractions, students taught by the constructivist approach might fold paper strips rather than reduce the numbers to the lowest common denominator. c. transitive. To change (a quantity, figure, etc.) to (also into) a different form, esp. for convenience or to facilitate comparison with others. Also intransitive (rare). ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > change a number or quantity [verb (transitive)] > into another form reduce1579 1579 L. Digges & T. Digges Stratioticos i. xii. 21 To reduce, is to bring Integers into Fractions or contrarie. 1667 H. Phillippes Purchasers Pattern (ed. 5) i. To Rdr. sig. A5 There will be 18 rod of Brick-work in the Wall, which may all be reduced to a brick and an half thick. 1669 S. Sturmy Mariners Mag. i. ii. 43 To reduce a Trapezia into a Triangle. 1833 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Cottage Archit. §88 In estimating the price of brick-work in Britain, the quantity..is always reduced to walls of one and a half brick in thickness. 1967 C. Potok Chosen iii. xiii. 225 I showed him how to set up his graphs, how to utilize the tables in his textbook, and how to reduce experimental findings to mathematical formulas. 1992 Sci. Amer. Apr. 110/3 Variables may be reduced to values such as plus, minus or zero to show whether a physical force such as the torque from a copier motor is increasing, decreasing or static. d. transitive. With to. To simplify (a mathematical expression) by means such as the rearrangement of terms, the substitution of one quantity for another, or the making an assumption or approximation. Cf. reduced adj. 1a, reduction n. 9c. ΚΠ 1702 J. Raphson Math. Dict. Parabolism, is the Division of the Terms of an Equation by the known Quantity..that is involved or multiplied into the first Term. Thus the following Equation axx + 2abx = bcc will be reduced to this xx + 2bx = ^bcc/ _a. 1743 W. Emerson Doctr. Fluxions 82 The given Fluxion may be reduced to another Expression. 1827 O. Gregory Hutton's Course Math. (ed. 9) I. 256 Cubic equations..may usually be reduced to quadratics, by extermination. 1947 S. A. Stigant Mod. Electr. Engin. Math. iv. 61 The solution becomes easier if the original matrix is first partitioned and thereby reduced to another equivalent matrix of lower order. 1990 Q. Jrnl. Mech. & Appl. Math. 43 473 The present problem can be reduced to the corresponding incompressible one by use of the Dorodnitsyn–Howarth transformation. †e. transitive. With to. To resolve by analysis. Obsolete. rare. ΚΠ 1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps ii. xxix. 399 I shall now endeavour to reduce the ripples to their mechanical elements. 22. transitive. Logic. To bring (a syllogism or proposition) into a different but equivalent form, spec. to one of the moods of the first figure; to subject to reduction (reduction n. 10a). ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > logical syllogism > deduce by syllogism [verb (transitive)] > reduce or bring into a different form reduce1728 ?1568 [implied in: L. Evans Abridgem. Logique sig. B.vij The turning of propositions..serueth for the euident opening of them,..and for the reducing of the seconde, and thirde figure into the first. (at reducing n.)]. 1573 R. Lever Arte of Reason ii. vi. 112 M.p.s.c. shewe how the vnperfecte seates [sc. figures] must be reduced. 1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Oo2 The Reduction to be of two kindes Direct, and Inuerted; the one when the Proposition is reduced to the Principle..: the other when the contradictorie of the Proposition is reduced to the contradictorie of the Principles. View more context for this quotation 1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Reduction A Conversion of one or both the Premisses [of a syllogism], or..a Transposition thereof; as when Camestres is reduced to Celarent. 1827 R. Whately Elem. Logic (ed. 2) ii. 101 All arguments may be somehow or other brought into some one of these four Moods [sc. in the first figure]; and a Syllogism is, in that case, said to be reduced. 1864 F. C. Bowen Treat. Logic vii. 195 The motives for reducing the three lower Figures to the First. 1906 J. N. Keynes Stud. & Exerc. Formal Logic (ed. 4) iii. iii. 320 The initial letters in the case of figures 2, 3, 4 shew to which of the moods of figure 1 the given mood is to be reduced. 1994 J. Lameer Al-Fārābī & Aristotelian Syllogistics iv. 123 Felapton..had already been proved by reducing this syllogism to Ferio in the first figure. †23. transitive. To render (land) fit for cultivation. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > reclamation > reclaim [verb (transitive)] ina1387 reclaim1440 improve1523 win1531 mitigate1601 reform1607 stuba1650 regain1652 redeem1671 reduce1726 to bring to1814 to bring in1860 to break in1891 green1967 1536–7 in Sc. Hist. Rev. 7 358 Our landis of Drigrange..war reducit furth of wod and forrest to telit landis. 1620 G. Markham Farwell to Husbandry x. 69 The bettering and inriching of these barren earths, and reducing them to good pasture or medow.] 1726 J. Laurence New Syst. Agric. i. iv. 58 It is a Work of the greatest Difficulty..to reduce Land beggared and worn out with indiscreet and avaritious Ploughing. 1762 J. Mills New Syst. Pract. Husbandry I. 151 Another method of reducing barren boggy land, in Ireland, is by laying upon it a little dung or straw, and covering this with shells. 1852 Plough, Loom, & Anvil Apr. 634 When first cleared, the crop must be corn or potatoes, to reduce the soil. 24. a. intransitive. With to. To admit of being viewed or expressed in another (usually simpler) form; to come down to. ΚΠ 1878 Analyst 5 6 The same may be said respecting a condition employed by another writer... The condition reduces to this, that when a law of mortality or other similar series has been adjusted.., the mean..ought to be [etc.]. 1885 Pall Mall Gaz. 25 June 4/2 Diseased he was, and of a harsh Northern strain, but all the carping reduces at last to this. 1924 Times Lit. Suppl. 6 Nov. 704/2 His success or failure hangs..on the degree of intensity with which he fuses his material—and perhaps the old distinction between fancy and imagination reduces in the end to that. 1953 J. B. Carroll Study of Lang. iii. 78 The problem of describing verbal behaviour..reduces to the problem of describing the strengths..of verbal responses under various stimulus conditions. 1978 Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. Sept. 964/1 Over time those claims reduce to nothing more than rationalizations to maintain power. 2000 Econ. & Philos. 16 135 For Simon..substantive rationality reduces to optimization theory, and the study of procedural rationality reduces to the study of human cognitive processes. b. intransitive. Mathematics. To admit of simplification to by reduction (reduction n. 9c), to simplify to. ΚΠ 1901 W. J. Milne Acad. Algebra 104 If a rational integral expression containing x reduces to zero when a is substituted for x, it is exactly divisible by x − a. 1956 E. H. Hutten Lang. Mod. Physics iii. 109 The equations of motion for a material particle as given by the general theory reduce to the equations of motion of Newton, when we consider the simplest case of a Euclidean, limited, region of space. 2004 K. Nakamura & T. Harayama Quantum Chaos & Quantum Dots x. 180 f_n is governed by the master equation ^df_n/ _dt = (− 2f_n + f_{n + 1} + f_{n − 1})R, which, in the continuum limit, reduces to the diffusion equation in energy space. IV. To bring down; to constrain, restrict. 25. a. transitive. To bring to (formerly †in, †into, †under) order, obedience, reason, etc., by constraint or compulsion. ΘΚΠ society > authority > subjection > subjecting or subjugation > subject [verb (transitive)] > make obedient master?c1225 atame1340 tamec1384 reclaima1393 reducec1475 subduea1525 range1587 to bring ina1599 tawne1606 entamea1616 puppify1660 to bring to1747 c1475 tr. A. Chartier Quadrilogue (Univ. Coll. Oxf.) (1974) 157 The citee was redued [read reduced; a1500 Rawl. yolden; Fr. reduitte] in his subieccion. 1490 W. Caxton tr. Eneydos xxii. 78 The resolucion..of his courage is euer reduced to thobeyssaunce of y^e goddes. 1541 Act 33 Hen. VIII c. 9 §2 The subiectes therof..subdued and redused diuers and many regions and countreis to their due obeisance. 1550 T. Nicolls tr. Thucydides Hist. Peloponnesian War iii. vi. f. lxxix^v They..that rebelled againste vs in tymes paste, after that we had reduced them to oure subiection. 1579 G. Fenton tr. F. Guicciardini Hist. Guicciardin xv. 404 Vppon these beginnings they consulted afterwardes to reduce Pisa vnder thobedience of the Florentins. 1641 P. Heylyn Ἡρωολογια Anglorvm 12 Those inferiour petite Kings, being, in tract of time worne out, and almost all the South reduced under the immediate command of the Roman Empire. 1654 J. Bramhall Just Vindic. Church of Eng. i. 5 Whensoever they have occasion to reduce the Pope to reason. 1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant i. 241 The King of Æthiopia..marched out against them [sc. the Jews], reduced them to duty. a1727 I. Newton Chronol. Anc. Kingdoms Amended (1728) ii. 217 Sesostris..reduced Judæa into servitude. 1769 E. Burke Observ. Late State Nation 73 Nothing..but the sending a very strong military, backed by a very strong naval force, would reduce the seditious to obedience. 1841–8 F. Myers Catholic Thoughts II. iv. §46. 412 Nor can any one [church]..reduce all the others to subjection. 1883 J. A. Froude Short Stud. 4th Ser. i. x. 108 The clergy could not be allowed to reduce Crown and barons into entire submission to their own pleasure. 1903 T. C. Dawson S. Amer. Republics (1906) I. 63 The first Spaniards that penetrated south from the Bolivian plateau failed to reduce them [sc. the Calchaquies] to submission. 1963 A. Baraka Blues People i. 8 Cortez and his conquistadores..had..reduced to abject slavery the ‘heathen’ race of Montezuma. 1990 Bull. Hispanic Stud. 67 394 Before the play is concluded he succeeds in replenishing the royal exchequer and reducing his grandees to due obedience. †b. transitive. To compel or require to give obedience or adherence to; to make subject to a person, a person's power, etc. Similarly with into, under. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > authority > subjection > subjecting or subjugation > subject [verb (transitive)] wieldOE i-weldeOE onwaldOE overwieldlOE amaistera1250 underlaya1300 daunt1303 underbringc1320 yoke?c1335 undercasta1340 afaitec1350 faite1362 subjecta1382 to make subjectc1384 distraina1400 underlouta1400 underthewa1400 underset1422 subjectc1460 subjuge?1473 submise?1473 dompt1480 suppedit?1483 to keep under1486 abandon1487 bandon?a1500 suppeditatec1545 to bring under1563 reduce1569 assubject1579 overpower1597 envassal1606 assubjugate1609 vassal1612 subact1619 vassalize1647 vassalate1659 to school down1818 to ride herd on (also over)1895 1569 T. Stocker tr. Diodorus Siculus Hist. Successors Alexander ii. xxii. 73/2 He reduced likewise..all the townes and cities of the Messenians to him. 1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene iii. iii. sig. Ee2^v He the six Islands, comprouinciall In auncient times vnto great Britainee, Shall to the same reduce. 1628 Abp. J. Williams Serm. 6 Apr. 34 When shall I see the day, when all my Affections reduc't vnder reason, I may pronounce this happy word, Vici, I haue ouercome them. 1655 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. I. i. 34 Solon perswaded also the Athenians to reduce into their power the Thracian Chersonesus. 1737 W. Whiston tr. Josephus Antiq. Jews vi. ix, in tr. Josephus Genuine Wks. 174 God..will reduce him under my power. 1833 Tracts for Times No. 15. 4 Queen Mary..reduced our Church again under the Bishop of Rome. 1876 W. F. Skene Celtic Scotl. I. i. iii. 152 We have the testimony of Prosper Aquitanus..that in 441 the British provinces had already been reduced under the power of the Saxons. c. transitive. Without construction: to compel to submit or surrender; to bring (a person) under control or authority; to bring (a place) into subjection; to subdue, subjugate, pacify. Now rare.Formerly also: †to reclaim or domesticate (an animal) (obsolete). ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > victory > make victorious [verb (transitive)] > bring into subjection subduea1387 subjugate1447 suppressc1450 quash1556 repress1582 reduce1605 the world > action or operation > prosperity > success > mastery or superiority > have or gain mastery or superiority over [verb (transitive)] > overcome or defeat shendc893 overwinOE overheaveOE mate?c1225 to say checkmatea1346 vanquishc1366 stightlea1375 outrayc1390 to put undera1393 forbeat1393 to shave (a person's) beardc1412 to put to (also at, unto) the (also one's) worsec1425 adawc1440 supprisec1440 to knock downc1450 to put to the worsta1475 waurc1475 convanquish1483 to put out1485 trima1529 convince1548 foil1548 whip1571 evict1596 superate1598 reduce1605 convict1607 defail1608 cast1610 banga1616 evince1620 worst1646 conquer1655 cuffa1657 trounce1657 to ride down1670 outdo1677 routa1704 lurcha1716 fling1790 bowl1793 lick1800 beat1801 mill1810 to row (someone) up Salt River1828 defeat1830 sack1830 skunk1832 whop1836 pip1838 throw1850 to clean out1858 take1864 wallop1865 to sock it to1877 whack1877 to clean up1888 to beat out1893 to see off1919 to lower the boom on1920 tonk1926 clobber1944 ace1950 to run into the ground1955 1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. ii. ii. 404 Reducing with industrious care, The Flocks and Droues couer'd with wooll and haire. 1612 J. Davies Discouerie Causes Ireland 11 The late King of Spaine could sooner win the Kingdome of Portugall, then reduce the States of the Low-Countries. a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1666 (1955) III. 462 The clamor & perill..made the whole Court amaz'd at it, & they did with..greate difficulty reduce & apease the people. 1700 M. Prior Carmen Sæculare 2 Mars's Son reduc'd the trembling Swains. 1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 306 If they were reduc'd, they should be brought to the Gallows. 1780 W. Coxe Acct. Russ. Discov. 187 A body of troops whom he sent before him to reduce the fortress found it quite deserted. a1842 T. Arnold Hist. Rome (1846) II. xxxv. 403 Ptolemy reduced the several petty kings of the island, and made himself master of it. 1865 E. B. Tylor Res. Early Hist. Mankind iii. 35 Those of the natives who have but lately been reduced. 1867 S. Smiles Huguenots Eng. & Ireland vii. 152 The young king set out with his army to reduce the revolted towns. a1894 R. L. Stevenson In South Seas (1896) iv. vii. 364 Success attended him; the islands were reduced, and Teñkoruti returned to his own government. 1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 91/2 As has been shown, he also reduced the kingdom of Shoa, and took Ankober, the capital. d. transitive. With infinitive. To constrain, compel, oblige (a person) to do something. In later use only with adverse circumstances (as poverty, desperation, etc.) as subject, and frequently in passive. ΘΚΠ the mind > possession > poverty > be or become impoverished [verb (passive)] > be compelled by want (to do something) reduce1622 the world > action or operation > difficulty > of difficulty: beset (a person) [verb (transitive)] > put (a person) in difficulty > reduce to straits > be reduced to spec. reduce1622 society > authority > subjection > obedience > compulsion > compel [verb (transitive)] > to do something holdc1275 piltc1275 constraina1340 strength1340 distrainc1374 compelc1380 makec1395 distressa1400 stressa1400 art?1406 putc1450 coerce1475 cohert1475 enforce1509 perforce1509 forcec1540 violent?1551 press1600 necessitate1601 rack1602 restrain1621 reduce1622 oblige1632 necessiate1709 1622 F. Bacon Hist. Raigne Henry VII 14 To reduce Aliens, being made Denizens, to pay strangers Customes. a1645 W. Browne tr. M. Le Roy Hist. Polexander (1647) ii. i. 155 I lived in that house as I did at Fez; that is, reduced to see none but my slaves, and to be often persecuted by mine enemy. 1693 J. Dryden tr. Juvenal in J. Dryden et al. tr. Juvenal Satires i. 9 The Poor Patrician is reduc'd to keep In Melancholly Walks a Grazier's Sheep. 1710 H. Prideaux Orig. & Right Tithes iii. 156 Having reduced them to receive Christianity, he imposed the same Law upon them. 1743 H. Walpole Let. 4 May (1955) XVIII. 225 Poor creature! he was reduced..to borrow five guineas of Sir Francis Dashwood. 1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones II. v. xi. 208 A Blow..reduced him to measure his Length on the Ground. View more context for this quotation 1807 Trans. Highl. Soc. 3 472 I rather think they are poisoned by being reduced to eat such unwholesome food. 1834 J. W. Carlyle Lett. I. 6 She is every other day reduced to borrow my tumblers, my teacups. 1844 G. Procter Hist. Italy (ed. 2) 157/1 It shamed his pride that circumstances had reduced him to mingle the blood of the Visconti with that of a peasant. 1894 G. Meredith Lord Ormont ii Poor gentlemen reduced to submit to any but a young woman's hug. 1930 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 60 417 Have his forbears left him no money? (that he is reduced to steal). 2002 Financial Express (India) (Nexis) 14 Oct. The government has been reduced to borrow in order to meet its establishment expenses. †e. transitive. To overcome, subdue, repress, moderate (a desire, temper, etc.). Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > calmness > self-possession or self-control > control oneself or the emotions [verb (transitive)] govern1340 sober1390 obtempera1492 refrain?1521 control1568 obtemperate1575 command1586 smother1594 subject1620 controla1627 possess1643 reduce1643 devour1650 stiflea1683 to wrestle down1808 1643 [implied in: J. Milton Doctr. Divorce 10 Mariage cannot be honorable for the meer reducing and terminating of lust between two. (at reducing n.)]. 1706 G. Stanhope Paraphr. Epist. & Gospels III. 13 We reduce and restrain our Desires of things agreeable here. 1714 T. Hearne Ductor Historicus (ed. 3) I. iii. 417 Not being able to reduce the Temper of the Tyrant or procure Justice. 1821 Gentleman's Mag. 91 i. Suppl. 612/1 We see that a love of learning has a tendency to reduce untractable tempers. f. transitive. To crush, put down (a rebellion). Now rare. ΘΚΠ society > authority > subjection > subjecting or subjugation > subject [verb (transitive)] > suppress, repress, or put down > rebellion or riot repress1445 suppressa1538 reduce1682 1682 W. Smith Charge Quarter-Sessions 2 The King at a great charge sent Ships and Souldiers thither, reduced that Rebellion, and settled the Country in peace. a1687 W. Petty Polit. Anat. Ireland (1691) 6 The Army who reduced the Rebellion, did..consist of near 35000 Men. 1786 J. Gillies Hist. Anc. Greece I. xx. 663 Thirty carried on the war in Macedonia, to reduce the rebellion of Amphipolis. 1897 S. Baring-Gould Life Napoleon xiv. 85 The other Deputies and Commissioners who were with the army sent to reduce the insurrection in Provence. 1972 Harvard Stud. Classical Philol. 76 131 Darius' drive for the royal tiara, his struggle to reduce one rebellion after another, and to unify the Empire occupied his first four years. 26. transitive. Scottish (chiefly Law). To rescind, revoke, or annul (a decree, etc.) by judicial order; to declare formally to be invalid; to set aside. Also intransitive. ΘΚΠ society > law > rule of law > illegality > render illegal [verb (transitive)] > deprive of legal validity abatea1325 squatcha1325 voida1325 allayc1325 annul1395 reverse1395 revokec1400 rupt?a1425 repealc1425 abroge1427 defeat1429 purloin1461 cassa1464 toll1467 resume1472 reprove1479 suspend1488 discharge1495 reduce1498 cassate1512 defease1512 denulla1513 disannula1513 fordoa1513 avoid1514–5 abrogate?1520 frustrate1528 revert1528 disaffirm?1530 extinct1530 resolve1537 null1538 nihilate1545 extinguish1548 elidec1554 revocate1564 annullate1570 squat1577 skaila1583 irritate1605 retex1606 nullify1607 unable1611 refix1621 vitiate1627 invalid1643 vacate1643 unlaw1644 outlaw1647 invalidate1649 disenact1651 vacuate1654 supersedec1674 destroy1805 break1891 1498 in G. Neilson & H. Paton Acts Lords of Council Civil Causes (1918) II. 241 That he micht call his parti til produce the execucione of the horne..and til haf the sammyn reducit..because thai war out of ordour. 1542 in D. H. Fleming Registrum Secreti Sigilli Regum Scotorum (1921) II. 733/2 The previlege..of the saidis courtis..to replege, reduc and agane bring. 1574 Reg. Privy Council Scotl. 1st Ser. II. 392 Their infeftment salbe reduceit and decernit null. 1609 J. Skene tr. Form of Proces xxxvi. §2 in Regiam Majestatem 127 Na Iudge may reduce his awne decreit, except the Lords of session. 1644 J. Maxwell Answer to Worthy Gentleman 65 No Iudgment passed there can be rectified or reduced by any Iudicatorie..but by themselves. 1722 W. Forbes Institutes I. ii. 251 The Lords of Session may not only reduce the Decreets of all inferior courts, but also may reduce their own Decrees. 1742 Acts Sederunt Scotl. (1753) II. 49 [The] Arbitrers, who pronounced the Decreet now reduced. 1768 D. Cook Ann. Pittenweem 149 The former magistrates and council, whose election was reduced and set aside by decreet of the Court of Session. 1812 Caledonian Mercury (Electronic text) 1 Feb. The Court..reduced and set aside the election of Mr Henderson. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scotl. 831 The creditors of an apparent heir may also pursue a reduction..without previously adjudging the right to reduce. 1865 Glasgow Herald 25 Mar. His first thought was to have the marriage settlement reduced. 1910 Daily Chron. 12 Mar. 5/7 A decree of divorce could be opened up on the ground of perjury or collusion within a period of forty years, but the decree was seldom reduced. 1947 Scotsman 8 July The decree of general service in favour of the first parties being reduced on the appearance of a nearer heir than the first parties. 1993 Times 30 Dec. 34/3 The court had reduced the conveyances on the ground that they were gratuitous alienations. 27. a. transitive. To bring down to an undesirable or unsatisfactory condition (as hardship, misery, poverty, etc.). ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > adversity > suffer (adversity or affliction) [verb (transitive)] > bring to lower condition or lay low settle1338 subduea1500 decaya1535 redact1542 reduce1567 to lay any one on his back1662 1567 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure II. iv. f. 31 They will not spare to reduce me to miserie, they will not sticke to imagine all deuises for mine anoyance. 1572 in Buccleuch MSS (Hist. MSS Comm.) (1899) I. 23 Scotland wes reducet to gret extremeties. 1662 J. Davies tr. A. Olearius Voy. & Trav. J. Albert de Mandelslo 22 in Voy. & Trav. Ambassadors The continual rains reduced it [sc. a province] to..a deplorable condition. 1671 J. Milton Samson Agonistes 1468 Having reduc't Thir foe to misery. View more context for this quotation 1748 B. Robins & R. Walter Voy. round World by Anson iii. ii. 319 Thus were we all..reduced to the utmost despair. 1777 R. Watson Hist. Reign Philip II I. ii. 27 His children..had reduced him to the painful necessity of taking arms against them. 1819 W. Irving Sketch Bk. i. 43 He found himself reduced almost to penury. 1868 W. E. Gladstone Juventus Mundi (1870) i. 4 The Dorian conquest had the immediate effect of reducing Mycenae to obscurity. 1921 L. Strachey Queen Victoria i. 15 The ducal family were reduced to beggary, almost to starvation. 1950 ‘W. Cooper’ Scenes Provincial Life ii. iv. 119 You apologize to the one who ought to apologize to you—to such straits does love reduce dignity and common sense. 2004 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 7 Oct. 4/1 They had all been..reduced to indigence by the dispossessions of the Gold Rush. b. transitive. With gerund or verbal noun. To bring down or lower (a person) to engaging in an undesirable or unsatisfactory activity. Frequently in passive. ΚΠ 1683 London Jilt i. 81 One day to be perplex'd with two or three little Children, and be reduced to Begging, or some worse thing. 1743 Sel. Trans. Soc. Improvers Knowl. Agric. Scotl. 226 Had this Husbandry been general in the dear Years, the Poor had not been reduced to..living on Arnots, Myles, or the like. 1866 ‘G. Eliot’ Felix Holt I. vi. 152 She had soon been reduced to walking, that she might save her pence to buy bread with. 1878 Amer. Jrnl. Math. 1 257 As there seems to be no ready method of getting even a roughly approximate value of y₀, we are reduced to making a series of guesses. 1915 A. Huxley Let. 26 Apr. (1969) 70 We're losing our heads and our senses of humour—and soon we shall be reduced to writing Hymns of Hate—then we're lost. 1970 D. Brown Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee ii. 25 Their food supply was gone, El Sordo said; they were reduced to eating piñon nuts. 2006 Independent 24 Nov. 16/4 Now the perma-tanned boulevardier has been reduced to flogging crisps to obese schoolchildren. c. transitive. To weaken physically, debilitate. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > ill health > cause to be ill [verb (transitive)] > make weak fellOE wastec1230 faintc1386 endull1395 resolvea1398 afaintc1400 defeat?c1400 dissolvec1400 weakc1400 craze1476 feeblish1477 debilite1483 overfeeble1495 plucka1529 to bring low1530 debilitate1541 acraze1549 decaya1554 infirma1555 weaken1569 effeeble1571 enervate1572 enfeeble1576 slay1578 to pull downa1586 prosternate1593 shake1594 to lay along1598 unsinew1598 languefy1607 enerve1613 pulla1616 dispirit1647 imbecilitate1647 unstring1700 to run down1733 sap1755 reduce1767 prostrate1780 shatter1785 undermine1812 imbecile1829 disinvigorate1844 devitalize1849 wreck1850 atrophy1865 crumple1892 1684 S. Pordage tr. T. Willis Of Feavers in Pract. Physick (rev. ed.) xvi. 137 This sick person was wholly free from a Delirium, nor was struck with Convulsive motions, till reduced almost to extremity.] 1689 [implied in: R. Boyle Let. 22 Aug. in Wks. (1772) I. p. cxxviii You will not find me more backward than formerly to serve you faithfully in my reduced capacity. (at reduced adj. 6)]. 1751 D. Ingram Pract. Cases & Observ. Surg. 125 These large Drains so reduced the Patient, that sometimes he was in Danger of sinking. 1767 B. Gooch Pract. Treat. Wounds I. 80 An ulcer..which had reduced the patient exceedingly, and brought her life into imminent danger. 1838 C. Dickens Oliver Twist II. xxxi. 202 Fever and ague..hung about him for many weeks, and reduced him sadly. 1856 E. K. Kane Arctic Explor. II. xxix. 288 The men seemed half crazy: I had not realized how much we were reduced by absolute famine. 1909 J. Bigelow Retrospections I. iii. 49 I bethought me of the discussion I had heard at Hull & Gray's office about the evils of bleeding and reducing the patient thereby. 1929 M. W. Beckwith Black Roadways 13 The pawpaw..takes the richness from the soil or the strength from the householders themselves... The ‘night jessamy’, too, if planted near a house will ‘reduce you’. d. transitive. To cause (a person) to be involuntarily or helplessly given over to tears, laughter, etc. ΚΠ 1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 320. 412 Till perhaps an easie young Girl is reduced to Sighs, Dreams and Tears; and languishes away her Life for a careless Coxcomb. 1800 J. Hoole tr. P. Metastasio Dido iii. xviii, in Dramas & Other Poems II. Would'st thou..See Dido then at length Reduc'd to feeble tears? 1857 Harper's Mag. Dec. 53/2 After which annihilating question I was duly bullied, brow-beaten, and reduced to silence. 1894 A. Gissing Vagabond in Arts II. ix. 299 ‘Then what brings you here?’ asked Shiel, reduced to derisive laughter. 1937 Amer. Home Apr. 165/1 We saw the pretty little waitress reduced almost to tears by the refusal of the club president to take soup. 1988 I. Colegate Deceits of Time (1990) 10 She remembered..Melanie Farmer, so easily reduced to giggles by the men and to tears by Sister. 2007 Daily Tel. 4 Apr. 22/4 The surliness of some midwives several times reduced me to tears. e. transitive. To bring down to a smaller allowance, more limited means, etc. ΚΠ 1722 Serm. French Hugonot Teacher 16 Men..who would be reduced to short Commons and a hard Lodging, if their Wives had been born with less Beauty and Wit, or more Vertue. 1819 P. B. Shelley Cenci ii. ii. 29 If you..were reduced at once From thrice-driven beds of down, and delicate food,..To that which nature doth indeed require? 1875 C. F. Woolson Castle Nowhere 305 We, who..had eaten our four courses and dessert every day on the ocean-steamer, found ourselves here reduced to the depressing diet of a herring and pilot-bread. 1915 D. Mawson Home of Blizzard II. 242 Finding that provisions were running rather short on the last day of February,we reduced ourselves to an allowance of one pound of sugar per week each. 2003 Sunday Tasmanian (Nexis) 14 Dec. We will all be reduced to bread and water to pay for our Yuletide largesse. f. transitive. Of physical or emotional hardship or stress: to drive or bring (a person) down to a figure of helplessness, debilitation, etc. ΚΠ 1797 Edinb. Mag. Apr. 269/1 The gout, which at last reduced him to a cripple. 1850 Eclectic Mag. Dec. 542/2 Time and dissipation had done their work... He was reduced to a mere shadow, the wreck of what he had once been. 1907 La Crosse (Wisconsin) Tribune 18 Feb. 6/6 The best man cannot remain so if he is reduced to a nervous wreck. 1919 Z. Grey Desert of Wheat xxvi. 315 That shell had exploded close to the place where Dorn stood. It terrified him. It reduced him to a palpitating, stricken wretch. 1991 Managem. Accounting Sept. 88/1 High-powered business executives who take far-reaching decisions with confidence, yet are reduced to a shaking remnant when it comes to flying. 2008 Courier Mail (Austral.) (Nexis) 27 Aug. 2 Many girls would be reduced to a bawling mess by such humiliation. 28. a. transitive. To bring down to a lower rank, position, dignity, etc. Also without construction, and (occasionally) with infinitive. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disrepute > damage to reputation > degrading or debasement > degrade [verb (transitive)] vile1297 supplanta1382 to bring lowa1387 revilea1393 gradea1400 villain1412 abject?a1439 to-gradea1440 vilifyc1450 villainy1483 disparage1496 degradea1500 deject?1521 disgraduate1528 disgress1528 regrade1534 base1538 diminute1575 lessen1579 to turn down1581 to pitch (a person) over the bar?1593 disesteem1594 degender1596 unnoble1598 disrank1599 reduce1599 couch1602 disthrone1603 displume1606 unplume1621 disnoble1622 disworth?1623 villainize1623 unglory1626 ungraduate1633 disennoble1645 vilicate1646 degraduate1649 bemean1651 deplume1651 lower1653 cheapen1654 dethrone1659 diminish1667 scoundrel1701 sink1706 demean1715 abjectate1731 unglorifya1740 unmagnify1747 undignify1768 to take the shine out of (less frequently from, U.S. off)1819 dishero1838 misdemean1843 downgrade1892 demote1919 objectify1973 1599 S. Daniel Let. from Octavia Argt. sig. B^v, in Poet. Ess. He armes his forces either to reduce Antonie to the ranke of his estate, or else to disranke him out of state and al. 1641 J. Milton Reason Church-govt. Concl. 61 The protestant religion..must undresse them of all their guilded vanities, and reduce them as they were at first, to the lowly and equall order of Presbyters. 1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost v. 843 More illustrious made, since he the Head One of our number thus reduc't becomes. View more context for this quotation 1727 A. Pope et al. Περι Βαθους: Art of Sinking 39 in J. Swift et al. Misc.: Last Vol. The Book of Job is acknowledg'd to be infinitely sublime, and yet has not our Father of the Bathos reduc'd it in every Page? 1751 J. Harris Hermes ii. i. 217 The Articles (A) and (The)..circumscribe the latitude of Genera and Species, by reducing them for the most part to denote Individuals. 1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall V. xlix. 146 The ambition of the popes was reduced to the empty honour of crowning and anointing these hereditary princes. 1811 T. Jefferson Writings (1830) IV. 164 The moment they usurp their direction and that of their government, they will be reduced to their true places. 1864 J. Bryce Holy Rom. Empire iv. 47 By setting the Emperor at the head of the Church to reduce the Pope to the place of chief bishop of his realm. 1946 Astounding Sci. Fiction Dec. 51/2 Then followed the final atomic war which reduced us to wandering tribes sunk lower than savages. 1969 J. T. Story Dishonourable Member (1978) xiv. 160 That was a name that seemed slightly to ridicule and reduce me. 2007 N.Y. Times 28 Jan. (Washington Final ed.) iv. 16/1 The Shiites would have to accept that there never will be a stable Iraq if the Sunnis are reduced to helot status. b. transitive. Originally Military. to reduce to (formerly also †into) the ranks: to demote (a non-commissioned officer) to the rank of private; (more generally) to strip (any officer or official) of his or her seniority; to demote. Also in extended use. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > military organization > enlistment or recruitment > appointment to rank > appoint to rank [verb (transitive)] > demote ungenerala1657 to reduce to (formerly also into) the ranks?1758 disrate1811 ?1758 C. W. Direct. Execution Militia Act 9 To serjeants to be reduced into the ranks, which is the purport of this clause. 1768 Gen. Wolfe's Instr. Young Officers 58 The lieutenant-colonel is determined to reduce to the ranks all such as are wilfully negligent, or too ignorant for their stations. 1800 Caledonian Mercury (Electronic text) 20 Dec. Before this took place, the Emperor [sc. the Czar of Russia] met him, and in consequence, he was reduced to the ranks, and his servant made an officer in his place. 1844 Queen's Regulations & Orders Army 149 Non-commissioned Officers may be reduced to the Ranks by the Sentence of a Regimental or other Court-Martial. 1869 T. W. Higginson Malbone ii. 69 The girls complained that in private theatricals no combination of disguises could reduce Kate to the ranks, nor give her the ‘make-up’ of a waiting-maid. 1908 S. M. Crothers By Christmas Fire v. 208 He rebukes even the Captains of Industry, and when they answer insolently, he suggests that they be reduced to the ranks. 1967 S. Mackay Old Crow vi. 31 She had once deprived a vicar of his living and, as a girl, had a captain reduced to the ranks. 1993 S. McAughtry Touch & Go vii. 54 Instead of being reduced to the ranks and put on shithouse fatigues, he was transferred to Air-Sea Rescue on Walrus amphibians. c. transitive. Originally and chiefly Military = to reduce to the ranks at sense 28b. Now rare. ΚΠ 1859 T. F. Hobbs Subaltern's Hand-bk. xvii. 69 If a Sergeant who had served ten years as such was reduced, would he reap any benefit from his former service as Sergeant if he again attained that rank? 1903 Times 8 Oct. 12/2 The prisoner was at one time a detective-sergeant... He was reduced, and for some time did duty at Old-street police-station. 1941 Sun (Baltimore) 17 Feb. 18/4 He was a top sergeant there. His cooking career began in France in July, 1918, when he was ‘reduced’ and made a mess sergeant. 1953 K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xxiii. 220 The deputy-governor..had been reduced and sent to Barmeadow because of some trouble in a gaol of which he had been governor. 29. Military. a. transitive. To break up or disband (a regiment or other force). Now rare. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > military operations > distribution of troops > [verb (transitive)] > levy or mobilize > disband cash1564 cashier1580 disband1591 reform1604 reduce1637 disbandon1640 disembody1762 demobilize1850 immobilize1871 demob1919 1637 R. Monro Exped. Scots Regim. i. 83 We see..some Regiments made up and continue in florishing order, other Regiments reduced taking an end,..Spynies Regiment was reduced, and my Lord of Rhees Regiment is made up againe. 1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) at Reform In Military Affairs, to Reform is to reduce a Body of Men, either disbanding the Whole,..or only breaking a Part. 1766 Answers A. Grant 3 L. 1:4:6, being Lieutenant Forbes's subsistence-money from the 24th February 1763 to the 3d March thereafter, when the regiment was reduced. 1802 C. James New Mil. Dict. (at cited word) When a regiment is reduced, the officers are generally put upon half-pay. 1863 Upper Canada Law Jrnl. Mar. 58/2 He was commissioned to an ensigncy in the Queen's Rangers,..in which corps he served till the peace, in 1783, when the regiment was reduced. 1910 Encycl. Brit. II. 622/2 An officer whose regiment was reduced commonly took a pike in some other corps. †b. transitive. To discharge (an officer) from active service, esp. as a consequence of the disbanding of a regiment. Obsolete (rare and historical in later use). ΚΠ 1649 W. Prynne Legall Vindic. Liberties Eng. (new ed.) 28 Sixty thousand pounds a month was thought abundantly sufficient by the Officers and Army themselves, to disband and reduce all super-numeraries, maintain the Established Army and Garisons, and ease the Country of all Free-quarter. 1659 Procl. Council of State 17 Mar. Whereas several officers reduced and disbanded, within the space of a year last past, do now remain in and about the cities of London and Westminster. 1832 Trials Charles I 137 The presbyterians in the House..proposed to disband great part of the army without indemnity.., to reduce all officers above the rank of colonel, with the single exception Fairfax. †c. transitive. To cause (a battalion formed in the shape of a square) to break formation, the component parts being restored to line or column. Chiefly in to reduce the square. Obsolete. ΚΠ 1627 G. Markham 2nd Pt. Soldiers Gram. ii. 29 Heere you behould the square or forme of a Battalia, now to reduce this to a Diamond, or imperfect square.] 1728 Exerc. Foot Forces 89 (heading) To Reduce the Square. 1773 R. Lambart New Syst. Mil. Discipline Pref. p. vi I have..directed, how and in what situation it [sc. the square] is to be formed, and how to reduce it when the occasion ceases. 1860 W. J. Hardee Rifle & Light Infantry Tactics (new ed.) II. 193 The colonel, wishing to break the square, will command: 1. Reduce square. 2. March (or double quick—March). This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2022). < n.1549v.?c1400
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† reducen.

reducev.