reduce

verb

• 1make smaller or less in amount, degree, or size:the need for businesses to reduce costs the workforce has been reduced to some 6,100 (as adjective reduced)a reduced risk of coronary disease
• [no object] become smaller or less in size, amount, or degree:the number of priority homeless cases has reduced slightly
• boil (a sauce or other liquid) in cooking so that it becomes thicker and more concentrated.
• [no object] chiefly North American (of a person) lose weight, typically by dieting:by May she had reduced to 125 pounds
• archaic conquer (a place), in particular besiege and capture (a town or fortress).
• Photography make (a negative or print) less dense.
• Phonetics articulate (a speech sound) in a way requiring less muscular effort. In vowels, this gives rise to a more central articulatory position.

• 2 (reduce someone/something to) bring someone or something to (a lower or weaker state, condition, or role):she has been reduced to near poverty the church was reduced to rubble
• (be reduced to doing something) (of a person) be forced by difficult circumstances into doing something desperate:ordinary soldiers are reduced to begging
• make someone helpless with (an expression of emotion, especially with hurt, shock, or amusement):Olga was reduced to stunned silence
• force into (obedience or submission):he succeeds in reducing his grandees to due obedience

• 3 (reduce something to) change a substance to (a different or more basic form):it is difficult to understand how lava could have been reduced to dust
• present a problem or subject in (a simplified form):he reduces unimaginable statistics to manageable proportions
• convert a fraction to (the form with the lowest terms).

• 4 Chemistry cause to combine chemically with hydrogen.
• undergo or cause to undergo a reaction in which electrons are gained by one atom from another. The opposite of oxidize.

• 5restore (a dislocated part) to its proper position by manipulation or surgery.
• remedy (a dislocation) by manipulation or surgery.