\Re*duce"\ (r[-e]*d[=u]s"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Reduced}
(-d[=u]st"),; p. pr. & vb. n. {Reducing} (-d[=u]"s[i^]ng).]
[L. reducere, reductum; pref. red-. re-, re- + ducere to
lead. See {Duke}, and cf. {Redoubt}, n.]
1. To bring or lead back to any former place or condition.
   [Obs.]

         And to his brother's house reduced his wife.
                                               --Chapman.

         The sheep must of necessity be scattered, unless the
         great Shephered of souls oppose, or some of his
         delegates reduce and direct us.       --Evelyn.

2. To bring to any inferior state, with respect to rank,
   size, quantity, quality, value, etc.; to diminish; to
   lower; to degrade; to impair; as, to reduce a sergeant to
   the ranks; to reduce a drawing; to reduce expenses; to
   reduce the intensity of heat. ``An ancient but reduced
   family.'' --Sir W. Scott.

         Nothing so excellent but a man may fasten upon
         something belonging to it, to reduce it.
                                               --Tillotson.

         Having reduced Their foe to misery beneath their
         fears.                                --Milton.

         Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which
         she found the clergyman reduced.      --Hawthorne.

3. To bring to terms; to humble; to conquer; to subdue; to
   capture; as, to reduce a province or a fort.



4. To bring to a certain state or condition by grinding,
   pounding, kneading, rubbing, etc.; as, to reduce a
   substance to powder, or to a pasty mass; to reduce fruit,
   wood, or paper rags, to pulp.

         It were but right And equal to reduce me to my dust.
                                               --Milton.

5. To bring into a certain order, arrangement,
   classification, etc.; to bring under rules or within
   certain limits of descriptions and terms adapted to use in
   computation; as, to reduce animals or vegetables to a
   class or classes; to reduce a series of observations in
   astronomy; to reduce language to rules.

6. (Arith.)
   (a) To change, as numbers, from one denomination into
       another without altering their value, or from one
       denomination into others of the same value; as, to
       reduce pounds, shillings, and pence to pence, or to
       reduce pence to pounds; to reduce days and hours to
       minutes, or minutes to days and hours.
   (b) To change the form of a quantity or expression without
       altering its value; as, to reduce fractions to their
       lowest terms, to a common denominator, etc.

7. (Chem.) To bring to the metallic state by separating from
   impurities; hence, in general, to remove oxygen from; to
   deoxidize; to combine with, or to subject to the action
   of, hydrogen; as, ferric iron is reduced to ferrous iron;
   or metals are reduced from their ores; -- opposed to
   {oxidize}.

8. (Med.) To restore to its proper place or condition, as a
   displaced organ or part; as, to reduce a dislocation, a
   fracture, or a hernia.

{Reduced iron} (Chem.), metallic iron obtained through
   deoxidation of an oxide of iron by exposure to a current
   of hydrogen or other reducing agent. When hydrogen is used
   the product is called also {iron by hydrogen}.

{To reduce an equation} (Alg.), to bring the unknown quantity
   by itself on one side, and all the known quantities on the
   other side, without destroying the equation.

{To reduce an expression} (Alg.), to obtain an equivalent
   expression of simpler form.

{To reduce a square} (Mil.), to reform the line or column
   from the square.

Syn: To diminish; lessen; decrease; abate; shorten; curtail;
     impair; lower; subject; subdue; subjugate; conquer.