| reduce | | |
| v. (change) | 1. bring down, cut, cut back, cut down, reduce, trim, trim back, trim down | cut down on; make a reduction in.; "reduce your daily fat intake"; "The employer wants to cut back health benefits" |
| ~ shorten | make shorter than originally intended; reduce or retrench in length or duration.; "He shortened his trip due to illness" |
| ~ spill | reduce the pressure of wind on (a sail). |
| ~ quench | reduce the degree of (luminescence or phosphorescence) in (excited molecules or a material) by adding a suitable substance. |
| ~ cut | have a reducing effect.; "This cuts into my earnings" |
| ~ retrench | make a reduction, as in one's workforce.; "The company had to retrench" |
| ~ slash | cut drastically.; "Prices were slashed" |
| ~ thin out | make sparse.; "thin out the young plants" |
| ~ thin | make thin or thinner.; "Thin the solution" |
| ~ minify, decrease, lessen | make smaller.; "He decreased his staff" |
| ~ detract, take away | take away a part from; diminish.; "His bad manners detract from his good character" |
| ~ deflate | reduce or cut back the amount or availability of, creating a decline in value or prices.; "deflate the currency" |
| ~ inflate | increase the amount or availability of, creating a rise in value.; "inflate the currency" |
| ~ downsize | reduce in size or number.; "the company downsized its research staff" |
| ~ subtract | take off or away.; "this prefix was subtracted when the word was borrowed from French" |
| ~ knock off, shave | cut the price of. |
| v. (change) | 2. reduce | make less complex.; "reduce a problem to a single question" |
| ~ abbreviate | shorten.; "Abbreviate `New York' and write `NY'" |
| ~ simplify | make simpler or easier or reduce in complexity or extent.; "We had to simplify the instructions"; "this move will simplify our lives" |
| v. (social) | 3. reduce | bring to humbler or weaker state or condition.; "He reduced the population to slavery" |
| ~ demote, kick downstairs, relegate, bump, break | assign to a lower position; reduce in rank.; "She was demoted because she always speaks up"; "He was broken down to Sergeant" |
| v. (possession) | 4. reduce | simplify the form of a mathematical equation of expression by substituting one term for another. |
| ~ math, mathematics, maths | a science (or group of related sciences) dealing with the logic of quantity and shape and arrangement. |
| ~ interchange, substitute, replace, exchange | put in the place of another; switch seemingly equivalent items.; "the con artist replaced the original with a fake Rembrandt"; "substitute regular milk with fat-free milk"; "synonyms can be interchanged without a changing the context's meaning" |
| v. (emotion) | 5. reduce | lower in grade or rank or force somebody into an undignified situation.; "She reduced her niece to a servant" |
| ~ demean, degrade, disgrace, take down, put down | reduce in worth or character, usually verbally.; "She tends to put down younger women colleagues"; "His critics took him down after the lecture" |
| v. (change) | 6. boil down, come down, reduce | be the essential element.; "The proposal boils down to a compromise" |
| ~ become, turn | undergo a change or development.; "The water turned into ice"; "Her former friend became her worst enemy"; "He turned traitor" |
| v. (change) | 7. reduce, shrink | reduce in size; reduce physically.; "Hot water will shrink the sweater"; "Can you shrink this image?" |
| ~ scale down, reduce | make smaller.; "reduce an image" |
| ~ shrink, contract | become smaller or draw together.; "The fabric shrank"; "The balloon shrank" |
| ~ reef | reduce (a sail) by taking in a reef. |
| ~ miniaturise, miniaturize | design or construct on a smaller scale. |
| ~ minify, decrease, lessen | make smaller.; "He decreased his staff" |
| ~ depopulate, desolate | reduce in population.; "The epidemic depopulated the countryside" |
| ~ downsize | make in a smaller size.; "the car makers downsized the SUVs when fuel became very expensive" |
| ~ contract | make smaller.; "The heat contracted the woollen garment" |
| v. (possession) | 8. reduce | lessen and make more modest.; "reduce one's standard of living" |
| ~ impoverish | make poor. |
| v. (change) | 9. reduce, scale down | make smaller.; "reduce an image" |
| ~ shrink, reduce | reduce in size; reduce physically.; "Hot water will shrink the sweater"; "Can you shrink this image?" |
| v. (change) | 10. deoxidise, deoxidize, reduce | 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. |
| ~ chemical science, chemistry | the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactions. |
| ~ change | undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature.; "She changed completely as she grew older"; "The weather changed last night" |
| ~ benficiate | subject to a reduction process.; "benficiate ores" |
| ~ pole | deoxidize molten metals by stirring them with a wooden pole. |
| v. (change) | 11. reduce, tighten | narrow or limit.; "reduce the influx of foreigners" |
| ~ confine, limit, throttle, restrain, trammel, bound, restrict | place limits on (extent or access).; "restrict the use of this parking lot"; "limit the time you can spend with your friends" |
| v. (social) | 12. keep down, quash, reduce, repress, subdue, subjugate | put down by force or intimidation.; "The government quashes any attempt of an uprising"; "China keeps down her dissidents very efficiently"; "The rich landowners subjugated the peasants working the land" |
| ~ crush, oppress, suppress | come down on or keep down by unjust use of one's authority.; "The government oppresses political activists" |
| v. (contact) | 13. reduce | undergo meiosis.; "The cells reduce" |
| ~ divide, part, separate | come apart.; "The two pieces that we had glued separated" |
| v. (contact) | 14. reduce | reposition (a broken bone after surgery) back to its normal site. |
| ~ reposition | place into another position. |
| v. (change) | 15. reduce | destress and thus weaken a sound when pronouncing it. |
| ~ linguistics | the scientific study of language. |
| ~ de-emphasise, de-emphasize, destress | reduce the emphasis. |
| ~ obscure | reduce a vowel to a neutral one, such as a schwa. |
| v. (change) | 16. abbreviate, abridge, contract, cut, foreshorten, reduce, shorten | reduce in scope while retaining essential elements.; "The manuscript must be shortened" |
| ~ bowdlerise, bowdlerize, expurgate, castrate, shorten | edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate.; "bowdlerize a novel" |
| ~ edit out, edit, cut | cut and assemble the components of.; "edit film"; "cut recording tape" |
| ~ condense, concentrate, digest | make more concise.; "condense the contents of a book into a summary" |
| ~ minify, decrease, lessen | make smaller.; "He decreased his staff" |
| v. (change) | 17. boil down, concentrate, decoct, reduce | be cooked until very little liquid is left.; "The sauce should reduce to one cup" |
| ~ cookery, cooking, preparation | the act of preparing something (as food) by the application of heat.; "cooking can be a great art"; "people are needed who have experience in cookery"; "he left the preparation of meals to his wife" |
| ~ decrease, diminish, lessen, fall | decrease in size, extent, or range.; "The amount of homework decreased towards the end of the semester"; "The cabin pressure fell dramatically"; "her weight fell to under a hundred pounds"; "his voice fell to a whisper" |
| v. (change) | 18. boil down, concentrate, reduce | cook until very little liquid is left.; "The cook reduced the sauce by boiling it for a long time" |
| ~ cookery, cooking, preparation | the act of preparing something (as food) by the application of heat.; "cooking can be a great art"; "people are needed who have experience in cookery"; "he left the preparation of meals to his wife" |
| ~ minify, decrease, lessen | make smaller.; "He decreased his staff" |
| v. (change) | 19. cut, dilute, reduce, thin, thin out | lessen the strength or flavor of a solution or mixture.; "cut bourbon" |
| ~ weaken | lessen the strength of.; "The fever weakened his body" |
| ~ water down | make less strong or intense.; "water down the mixture" |
| v. (body) | 20. lose weight, melt off, reduce, slenderize, slim, slim down, thin | take off weight. |
| ~ sweat off | lose weight by sweating.; "I sweated off 3 pounds in the sauna" |
| ~ change state, turn | undergo a transformation or a change of position or action.; "We turned from Socialism to Capitalism"; "The people turned against the President when he stole the election" |
| devoid | | |
| adj. | 1. barren, destitute, devoid, free, innocent | completely wanting or lacking.; "writing barren of insight"; "young recruits destitute of experience"; "innocent of literary merit"; "the sentence was devoid of meaning" |
| ~ nonexistent | not having existence or being or actuality.; "chimeras are nonexistent" |
| insufficient | | |
| adj. | 1. deficient, insufficient | of a quantity not able to fulfill a need or requirement.; "insufficient funds" |
| ~ meager, meagerly, meagre, scrimpy, stingy | deficient in amount or quality or extent.; "meager resources"; "meager fare" |
| ~ depleted, low | no longer sufficient.; "supplies are low"; "our funds are depleted" |
| ~ inadequate, short, poor | not sufficient to meet a need.; "an inadequate income"; "a poor salary"; "money is short"; "on short rations"; "food is in short supply"; "short on experience" |
| ~ skimpy, lean | containing little excess.; "a lean budget"; "a skimpy allowance" |
| ~ scant, short, light | less than the correct or legal or full amount often deliberately so.; "a light pound"; "a scant cup of sugar"; "regularly gives short weight" |
| ~ shy | short.; "eleven is one shy of a dozen" |
| less | | |
| adj. | 1. less | (comparative of `little' usually used with mass nouns) a quantifier meaning not as great in amount or degree.; "of less importance"; "less time to spend with the family"; "a shower uses less water"; "less than three years old" |
| ~ comparative, comparative degree | the comparative form of an adjective or adverb.; "`faster' is the comparative of the adjective `fast'"; "`less famous' is the comparative degree of the adjective `famous'"; "`more surely' is the comparative of the adverb `surely'" |
| ~ slight, little | (quantifier used with mass nouns) small in quantity or degree; not much or almost none or (with `a') at least some.; "little rain fell in May"; "gave it little thought"; "little time is left"; "we still have little money"; "a little hope remained"; "there's slight chance that it will work"; "there's a slight chance it will work" |
| adj. | 2. less | (usually preceded by `no') lower in quality.; "no less than perfect" |
| ~ inferior | of low or inferior quality. |
| adj. | 3. less | (nonstandard in some uses but often idiomatic with measure phrases) fewer.; "less than three weeks"; "no less than 50 people attended"; "in 25 words or less" |
| ~ fewer | (comparative of `few' used with count nouns) quantifier meaning a smaller number of.; "fewer birds came this year"; "the birds are fewer this year"; "fewer trains were late" |
| adv. | 4. less, to a lesser extent | used to form the comparative of some adjectives and adverbs.; "less interesting"; "less expensive"; "less quickly" |
| adv. | 5. less | comparative of little.; "she walks less than she should"; "he works less these days" |
| meager | | |
| adj. | 1. meager, meagerly, meagre, scrimpy, stingy | deficient in amount or quality or extent.; "meager resources"; "meager fare" |
| ~ scarce | deficient in quantity or number compared with the demand.; "fresh vegetables were scarce during the drought" |
| ~ scanty, bare, spare | lacking in amplitude or quantity.; "a bare livelihood"; "a scanty harvest"; "a spare diet" |
| ~ exiguous | extremely scanty.; "an exiguous budget" |
| ~ hand-to-mouth | providing only bare essentials.; "a hand-to-mouth existence" |
| ~ hardscrabble | barely satisfying a lower standard.; "the sharecropper's hardscrabble life" |
| ~ measly, paltry, miserable | contemptibly small in amount.; "a measly tip"; "the company donated a miserable $100 for flood relief"; "a paltry wage"; "almost depleted his miserable store of dried beans" |
| ~ minimal, minimum | the least possible.; "needed to enforce minimal standards"; "her grades were minimal"; "minimum wage"; "a minimal charge for the service" |
| ~ insufficient, deficient | of a quantity not able to fulfill a need or requirement.; "insufficient funds" |
| scanty | | |
| n. (artifact) | 1. pantie, panty, scanty, step-in | short underpants for women or children (usually used in the plural). |
| ~ underpants | an undergarment that covers the body from the waist no further than to the thighs; usually worn next to the skin. |
| ~ plural, plural form | the form of a word that is used to denote more than one. |
| adj. | 2. bare, scanty, spare | lacking in amplitude or quantity.; "a bare livelihood"; "a scanty harvest"; "a spare diet" |
| ~ meager, meagerly, meagre, scrimpy, stingy | deficient in amount or quality or extent.; "meager resources"; "meager fare" |
| sketchy | | |
| adj. | 1. sketchy, unelaborated | giving only major points; lacking completeness.; "a sketchy account"; "details of the plan remain sketchy" |
| ~ incomplete, uncomplete | not complete or total; not completed.; "an incomplete account of his life"; "political consequences of incomplete military success"; "an incomplete forward pass" |
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