reduce
verb OPAL WOPAL S
/rɪˈdjuːs/
/rɪˈduːs/
Verb Forms
Idioms Phrasal Verbs| present simple I / you / we / they reduce | /rɪˈdjuːs/ /rɪˈduːs/ |
| he / she / it reduces | /rɪˈdjuːsɪz/ /rɪˈduːsɪz/ |
| past simple reduced | /rɪˈdjuːst/ /rɪˈduːst/ |
| past participle reduced | /rɪˈdjuːst/ /rɪˈduːst/ |
| -ing form reducing | /rɪˈdjuːsɪŋ/ /rɪˈduːsɪŋ/ |
- [transitive, intransitive] to make something less or smaller in size, quantity, price, etc.; to become less or smaller in size, quantity, etc.
- reduce something Reduce speed now (= on a sign).
- Giving up smoking reduces the risk of heart disease.
- to reduce costs/numbers
- a reduced rate/price
- They will require car makers to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 30%.
- reduce something by something Costs have been reduced by 20% over the past year.
- reduce something from something to something The number of employees was reduced from 40 to 25.
- reduce something to something The skirt was reduced to £10 in the sale.
- reduce in something Towards the coast, the hills gradually reduce in size.
- The number of search engines has reduced substantially over the last few years.
Extra ExamplesTopics Change, cause and effecta2, Shoppinga2, Moneya2- Legislation progressively reduced the number of situations in which industrial action could be taken.
- Pollution from the works has been reduced by 70 per cent.
- The price is reduced from 99 cents to 85 cents.
- The risks must be reduced to the absolute minimum.
- We need to reduce the speed slightly.
- The program aims to reduce or eliminate pesticides.
- This could greatly reduce the number of injuries suffered.
- She is trying to reduce the amount of time she spends away from home.
- Regulating traffic will reduce the accident rate significantly.
- Many studios sell ten cards for a reduced rate.
- Yoga can help reduce stress levels.
- It was a tough decision to reduce the size of the workforce.
- The police will be given more resources to reduce violent crime.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- considerably
- dramatically
- drastically
- …
- aim to
- attempt to
- seek to
- …
- by
- in
- from
- …
- an attempt to reduce something
- an effort to reduce something
- measures to reduce something
- …
- [transitive, intransitive] reduce (something) if you reduce a liquid or a liquid reduces, you boil it so that it becomes less in quantity
- [intransitive] (North American English, informal) to lose weight by limiting the amount and type of food that you eat
- a reducing plan
- [transitive] reduce something (chemistry) to add one or more electrons to a substance or to remove oxygen from a substance compare oxidize
Word Originlate Middle English: from Latin reducere, from re- ‘back, again’ + ducere ‘bring, lead’. The original sense was ‘bring back’ ; this led to ‘bring to a different state’, then ‘bring to a simpler or lower state’ (hence sense (2)); and finally ‘diminish in size or amount’ (sense (1), dating from the late 18th cent.).
Idioms
reduced circumstances
- the state of being poorer than you were before. People say ‘living in reduced circumstances’ to avoid saying ‘poor’.