Search the Dictionary

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.

To reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; to free from impurities; to free from dross or alloy; to separate from extraneous matter; to purify; to defecate; as, to refine gold or silver; to refine iron; to refine wine or sugar. I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined. Z…

To reduce to regulus; to separate, as a metal from extraneous matter; as, to regulize antimony. [Archaic]

To separate the component parts of; to reduce to the constituent elements; -- said of compound substances; hence, sometimes, to melt, or dissolve. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Shak. Ye immortal souls, who once were men, And now resolved to elements again. Dryden.…

To restore or reduce to its natural or metallic state; as, to revive a metal after calcination.

to a government; rebellion; as, the revolt of a province of the Roman empire. Who first seduced them to that foul revolt Milton.

ndrical piece of wood or other material, with which paste or dough may be rolled out and reduced to a proper thickness.

hak. To rub down. (a) To clean by rubbing; to comb or curry; as, to down a horse. (b) To reduce or remove by rubbing; as, to rub down the rough points. -- To rub off, to clean anything by rubbing; to separate by friction; as, to rub off rust. -- To rub out, to remove or separate by friction; to erase; to obliterate;…

To demolish; to subvert; to destroy; to reduce to poverty; to ruin. I will not ruinate my fShak. Ruinating thereby the health of their bodies. Burton.

ove our apprehension. Dr. H. More. Only sagacious heads light on these observations, and reduce them into general propositions. Locke.

Fine particles of stone, esp. of siliceous stone, but not reduced to dust; comminuted stone in the form of loose grains, which are not coherent when wet. That finer matter, called sand, is no other than very small pebbles. Woodsward.

is present bearing with his past. Shak. To scale, or scale down, a debt, wages, etc., to reduce a debt, etc., according to a fixed ratio or scale. [U.S.]

To cause to separate in different directions; to reduce from a close or compact to a loose or broken order; to dissipate; to disperse. Scatter and disperse the giddy Goths. Shak.

To reduce to scoria or slag; specifically, in assaying, to fuse so as to separate the gangue and earthy material, with borax, lead, soda, etc., thus leaving the gold and silver in a lead button; hence, to separate from, or by means of, a slag.

Our country landlords, by unmeasureable screwing and racking their tenants, have already reduced the miserable people to a worse condition than the peasants in France. swift.

Capable of being seduced; corruptible.

That which seduces, or is adapted to seduce; means of leading astray; as, the seductions of wealth.

A woman who seduces.

To reduce from a dislocated or fractured state; to replace; as, to set a broken bone.

ion. Atterbury. Thy equal fear that my firm faith and love Can by his fraud be shaken or seduced. Milton.