Reduce \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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)