[rɪˈdjuːs], (Verb)

Definitions:
- make smaller or less in amount, degree, or size
(e.g: the need for businesses to reduce costs)

- bring someone or something to (a worse or less desirable state or condition)
(e.g: she has been reduced to near poverty)

- change a substance to (a different or more basic form)
(e.g: it is difficult to understand how lava could have been reduced to dust)

- cause to combine chemically with hydrogen
(e.g: hydrogen for reducing the carbon dioxide)

- restore (a dislocated part of the body) to its proper position by manipulation or surgery
(e.g: Joe's reducing a dislocated thumb)

- besiege and capture (a town or fortress)


Phrases:
- reduce someone to the ranks
- reduced circumstances

Origin:
late Middle English: from Latin reducere, from re- ‘back, again’ + ducere ‘bring, lead’. The original sense was ‘bring back’ (hence ‘restore’, now surviving in reduce); this led to ‘bring to a different state’, then ‘bring to a simpler or lower state’ (hence reduce); and finally ‘diminish in size or amount’ (reduce, dating from the late 18th century)