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Light-producing; of or pertaining to pyrophorus. Pyrophoric iron (Chem.), finely reduced iron, which ignites spontaneously on contact with air.

That may be sqyared, or reduced to an equivalent square; -- said of a surface when the area limited by a curve can be exactly found, and expressed in a finite number of algebraic terms.

, One who, or that which, qualifies; that which modifies, reduces, tempers or restrains.

To reduce from a general, undefined, or comprehensive form, to particular or restricted form; to modify; to limit; to restrict; to restrain; as, to qualify a statement, claim, or proposition.

in the process of parting) of alloying a button of nearly pure gold with enough silver to reduce the fineness so as to allow acids to attack and remove all metals except the gold; -- called also inquartation. Compare Parting.

To stop motion in; to still; to reduce to a state of rest, or of silence.

To distil or extract as a quintessence; to reduce to a quintessence. [R.] Stirling. "Truth quintessenced and raised to the highest power." J. A. Symonds.

To collect, and reduce to order, as troops dispersed or thrown into confusion; to gather again; to reunite.

aff. (b) See under 1st File. -- The ranks, the order or grade of common soldiers; as, to reduce a noncommissioned officer to the ranks. -- To fill the ranks, to supply the whole number, or a competent number. -- To take rank of, to have precedence over, or to have the right of taking a higher place than.pull rank, t…

An armed ship having her upper deck cut away, and thus reduced to the next inferior rate, as a seventy-four cut down to a frigate. Totten.

To reduce again to barbarism. -- Re*bar`ba*ri*za"tion, n. Germany . . . rebarbarized by polemical theology and religious wars. Sir W. Hamilton.

To reduce from a wild to a tamed state; to bring under discipline; -- said especially of birds trained for the chase, but also of other animals. "An eagle well reclaimed." Dryden.

To reduce to form, as literary matter; to digest and put in shape (matter for publication); to edit.

To digest, or reduce to form, a second time. Kent.

Capable of being reduced.

a & n. from Reduce. Reducing furnace (Metal.), a furnace for reducing ores. -- Reducing pipe fitting, a pipe fitting, as a coupling, an elbow, a tee, etc., for connecting a large pipe with a smaller one. -- Reducing valve, a device for automatically maintaining a diminished pressure of steam, air, gas, etc., in a pip…

To reduce. [Obs.] W. Warde.

The act of reducing, or state of being reduced; conversion to a given state or condition; diminution; conquest; as, the reduction of a body to powder; the reduction of things to order; the reduction of the expenses of government; the reduction of a rebellious province.

Tending to reduce; having the power or effect of reducing. -- n.

To reduce the extent of (as a sail) by roiling or folding a certain portion of it and making it fast to the yard or spar. Totten. To reef the paddles, to move the floats of a paddle wheel toward its center so that they will not dip so deeply.