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The act or process of reducing, by depression of temperature or increase of pressure, etc., to another and denser form, as gas to the condition of a liquid or steam to water.

To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.

The shortening of a word, or of two words, by the omission of a letter or letters, or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one; as, ne'er for never; can't for can not; don't for do not; it's for it is.

Diminishing the energy of organs; reducing excitement; as, a debilitant drug.

The act of reducing in rank, character, or reputation, or of abasing; a lowering from one's standing or rank in office or society; diminution; as, the degradation of a peer, a knight, a general, or a bishop. He saw many removes and degradations in all the other offices of which he had been possessed. Clarendon.…

The act or process of reducing from the state of an oxide.

That which removes oxygen; hence, a reducing agent; as, nascent hydrogen is a deoxidizer.

The operation of reducing to a lower degree; -- said of equations.

reserved by deed, without a clause of distress. Bouvier. -- Dry rot, a decay of timber, reducing its fibers to the condition of a dry powdery dust, often accompanied by the presence of a peculiar fungus (Merulius lacrymans), which is sometimes considered the cause of the decay; but it is more probable that the real c…

Filled, covered, or sprinkled with dust; clouded with dust; as, a dusty table; also, reducing to dust. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Shak.

The act of weakening, or reducing strength.

The act of reducing to slavery; state of being enslaved; bondage; servitude. A fresh enslavement to their enemies. South.

Incision of the intestines, especially in reducing certain cases of hernia.

The act of reducing to feudal tenure.

The act, process, or result of formulating or reducing to a formula.

The act or process of reducing to a formula; the state of being formulized.

An inclosed place in which heat is produced by the combustion of fuel, as for reducing ores or melting metals, for warming a house, for baking pottery, etc.; as, an iron furnace; a hot-air furnace; a glass furnace; a boiler furnace, etc.

a white, crystalline substance, C6H2(HO)3.CO2H, with an astringent taste, and is a strong reducing agent, as employed in photography. It is usually prepared from tannin, and both give a dark color with iron salts, forming tannate and gallate of iron, which are the essential ingredients of common black ink.…

The process of removing moisture from the blast of an iron blast furnace by reducing its temperature so far that it will not remain suspended as vapor in the blast current, but will be deposited as snow in the cooling apparatus. The resultant uniformly dehydrated blast effects great economy in fuel consumption, and pro…

erman paste, a prepared food for caged birds. -- German process (Metal.), the process of reducing copper ore in a blast furnace, after roasting, if necessary. Raymond. -- German sarsaparilla, a substitute for sarsaparilla extract. -- German sausage, a polony, or gut stuffed with meat partly cooked. -- German silver…