What is the meaning of reduce?

verb

• Cut down on; make a reduction in.
  • usage: "reduce your daily fat intake"; "The employer wants to cut back health benefits"
  • synonyms: cut down, cut back, trim, trim down, trim back, cut, bring down
• Make less complex.
  • usage: "reduce a problem to a single question"
• Bring to humbler or weaker state or condition.
  • usage: "He reduced the population to slavery"
• Simplify the form of a mathematical equation of expression by substituting one term for another.
• Lower in grade or rank or force somebody into an undignified situation.
  • usage: "She reduced her niece to a servant"
• Be the essential element.
  • usage: "The proposal boils down to a compromise"
  • synonyms: come down, boil down
• Reduce in size; reduce physically.
  • usage: "Hot water will shrink the sweater"; "Can you shrink this image"
  • synonyms: shrink
• Lessen and make more modest.
  • usage: "reduce one's standard of living"
• Make smaller.
  • usage: "reduce an image"
  • synonyms: scale down
• To remove oxygen from a compound, or cause to react with hydrogen or form a hydride, or to undergo an increase in the number of electrons.
  • synonyms: deoxidize, deoxidise
• Narrow or limit.
  • usage: "reduce the influx of foreigners"
  • synonyms: tighten
• Put down by force or intimidation.
  • usage: "The government quashes any attempt of an uprising"; "China keeps down her dissidents very efficiently"; "The rich landowners subjugated the peasants working the land"
  • synonyms: repress, quash, keep down, subdue, subjugate
• Undergo meiosis.
  • usage: "The cells reduce"
• Reposition (a broken bone after surgery) back to its normal site.
• Destress and thus weaken a sound when pronouncing it.
• Reduce in scope while retaining essential elements.
  • usage: "The manuscript must be shortened"
  • synonyms: abridge, foreshorten, abbreviate, shorten, cut, contract
• Be cooked until very little liquid is left.
  • usage: "The sauce should reduce to one cup"
  • synonyms: boil down, decoct, concentrate
• Cook until very little liquid is left.
  • usage: "The cook reduced the sauce by boiling it for a long time"
  • synonyms: boil down, concentrate
• Lessen the strength or flavor of a solution or mixture.
  • usage: "cut bourbon"
  • synonyms: dilute, thin, thin out, cut
• Take off weight.
  • synonyms: melt off, lose weight, slim, slenderize, thin, slim down