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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…

The act of shortening, or reducing.

The reducing or lands or tenements to mortmain. See Mortmain.

The act of reducing a substance to a fine or impalpable powder. [Obs.] Johnson.

The resolving of problems by reducing the conditions that are in them to equations.

The act of reducing to nothing, or nonexistence; or the act of destroying the form or combination of parts under which a thing exists, so that the name can no longer be applied to it; as, the annihilation of a corporation.

The act of ascertaining; a reducing to certainty; a finding out by investigation; discovery. The positive ascertainment of its limits. Burke.

The act of reducing to atoms, or very minute particles; or the state of being so reduced.

One who, or that which, atomizes; esp., an instrument for reducing a liquid to spray for disinfecting, cooling, or perfuming.

A method of reducing corpulence by avoiding food containing much farinaceous, saccharine, or oily matter; -- so called from William Banting of London.

To lessen by retrenching, deducting, or reducing; to abate; to beat down; to lower. He must either bate the laborer's wages, or not employ or not pay him. Locke.

The act or process of reducing a metal to an oxide or metallic calx; oxidation.

with the king . . . to take to wife his daughter Mary. Heylin. There is no reason why the reducing of any agreement to certain heads or capitula should not be called to capitulate. Trench.

A reducing to heads or articles; a formal agreement. With special capitulation that neither the Scots nor the French shall refortify. Bp. Burnet.

ss of centralizing, or the state of being centralized; the act or process of combining or reducing several parts into a whole; as, the centralization of power in the general government; the centralization of commerce in a city.

or process of cutting or breaking off small pieces, as in dressing iron with a chisel, or reducing a timber or block of stone to shape.

The reducing of anything to ashes by combustion; cinefaction.

The act or process of codifying or reducing laws to a code.

The act of reducing to a fine powder or to small particles; pulverization; the state of being comminuted. Bentley.

The act or process of reducing the volume of a liquid, as by evaporation. The acid acquires a higher degree of concentration. Knight.