喜樂美語

核心畫面

Take something and make it LESS — smaller in size, amount, number, or price. The basic move is 'bring it down': you start with more and end with less. Everything else (boiling a sauce down, the body down, a family brought down in wealth) is this same 'make it less' applied to a particular thing.

可以想成一個「往下、變少」的動作：拿一個東西，把它弄得更小、更少——不管是體積、數量、數字還是價格，本來多，現在少。…更多收起可以想成一個「往下、變少」的動作：拿一個東西，把它弄得更小、更少——不管是體積、數量、數字還是價格，本來多，現在少。其他用法（把醬汁煮到變少、把身體瘦下來、把家境降下去）都是同一個「使它變少」套在不同對象上。

From the word’s history

Latin reducere 're- (back) + ducere (to lead/bring)' = 'bring back/down'; in modern English the 'bring down/lessen' sense dominates.

源自拉丁文 reducere：re-（回、往回）＋ ducere（帶、領），原意是「帶回去、引下來」，現代英文裡收斂成「把某物帶下來、弄少」這個主軸。

Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), 'reduce' (Latin reducere, re- + ducere 'to lead')

One branch

使變少：把量、體積、價格降下來

核心畫面本身，以及它直接套在液體、身體、家境上的幾種具體情況。

make smaller · verb · B1

To bring the size, amount, number, or price of something down to a lower level.

減少 / 降低

原始詞典資料19 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

reduceverb/ɹɪˈd͡ʒuːs/

  • 1

    To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower.

    • to reduce weight, speed, heat, expenses, price, personnel etc.
    • Becoming more aware of the progress that scientists have made on behavioral fronts can reduce the risk that other natural scientists will resort to mystical agential accounts when they exceed the limits of their own disciplinary training.
  • 2

    To lose weight.

  • 3

    To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.

    • to reduce a sergeant to the ranks
    • My father, the eldest son of an ancient but reduced family, left me with little.
  • 4

    To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture.

    • to reduce a province or a fort
  • 5

    To bring to an inferior state or condition.

    • to reduce a city to ashes
  • 6

    To be forced by circumstances (into something one considers unworthy).

    • reduced to silence
    • The press release calls him "the hottest female impressionist in show business today." (One wonders how many more words press agents will have to come up with before they are reduced to actually saying "drag queen.")
  • 7

    cookingfoodlifestyleTo decrease the liquid content of (a food) by boiling much of its water off.

    • Serve the oxtails with mustard or a sauce made by reducing the soup, if any is left, to a slightly thick sauce.
  • 8

    chemistrynatural-sciencesphysical-sciencesTo add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.

    • Formaldehyde can be reduced to form methanol.
另外 11 個記錄的用法
  • 9

    engineeringmetallurgynatural-sciencesTo produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter.

  • 10

    mathematicssciencesTo simplify an equation or formula without changing its value.

  • 11

    computercomputingengineeringTo express the solution of a problem in terms of another (known) algorithm.

  • 12

    human-scienceslogicmathematicsTo convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form.

  • 13

    lawTo convert to written form. (Usage note: this verb almost always appears as “reduce to writing”.)

    • It is important that all business contracts be reduced to writing.
  • 14

    medicinesciencesTo perform a reduction; to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment.

  • 15

    governmentmilitarypoliticsTo reform a line or column from (a square).

  • 16

    governmentmilitarypoliticsTo strike off the payroll.

  • 17

    To annul by legal means.

  • 18

    human-scienceslinguisticsphoneticsTo pronounce (a sound or word) with less effort.

    • The first vowel of support is reduced to schwa by most English speakers.
  • 19

    obsoleteTo translate (a book, document, etc.).

    • a book reduced into English

資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。