reducing

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun any process in which electrons are added to an atom or ion (as by removing oxygen or adding hydrogen); always occurs accompanied by oxidation of the reducing agent
noun loss of excess weight (as by dieting); becoming slimmer
verb cut down on; make a reduction in

It's standing up twenty minutes after meals that does the reducing. — Just Around the Corner: Romance en casserole, Fannie Hurst
For knowledge is not the road to being, as some say, but being to knowledge, for being does not create but only exhibits things, as death is not the reducing of existence to non-existence, but rather the result of dissolution is obscurity. — Plutarch's Morals, Plutarch
Bacon has a remark to the same effect, on the best means of "reducing of the mind unto virtue and good estate; which is, the electing and propounding unto a man's self good and virtuous ends of his life, such as may be in a reasonable sort within his compass to attain." — Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

reduction

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