Reduce vs. Suppress — What's the Difference?
Difference Between Reduce and Suppress
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Compare with Definitions
Reduce
To bring down, as in extent, amount, or degree; diminish.
Suppress
To put an end to forcibly; subdue
Suppress a rebellion. See Usage Note at repress.
Reduce
To gain control of; subject or conquer
"a design to reduce them under absolute despotism" (Declaration of Independence).
Suppress
To curtail or prohibit the activities of
Suppress dissident groups.
Reduce
To subject to destruction
Enemy bombers reduced the city to rubble.
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Suppress
To keep from being revealed, published, or circulated
Suppress evidence.
Suppress a film.
Reduce
To bring to a specified undesirable state, as of weakness or helplessness
Disease that reduced the patient to emaciation.
Teasing that reduced the child to tears.
Suppress
To deliberately exclude (unacceptable desires or thoughts) from the mind.
Reduce
To compel to desperate acts
The Depression reduced many to begging on street corners.
Suppress
To inhibit the expression of
Suppress anger.
Suppress a smile.
Reduce
To lower in rank or grade; demote.
Suppress
To restrain the growth, activity, or release of
Suppress a virus.
Suppress a hemorrhage.
Reduce
To thicken or intensify the flavor of (a sauce, for example) by slow boiling.
Suppress
To inhibit the expression of (a gene)
Suppress a mutation.
Reduce
To lower the price of
The store has drastically reduced winter coats.
Suppress
To put an end to, especially with force, to crush, do away with; to prohibit, subdue.
Political dissent was brutally suppressed.
Reduce
To decrease the viscosity of (paint, for example), as by adding a solvent.
Suppress
To restrain or repress, such as laughter or an expression.
I struggled to suppress my smile.
Reduce
To put in a simpler or more systematic form; simplify or codify
Reduced her ideas to a collection of maxims.
Suppress
(psychiatry) To exclude undesirable thoughts from one's mind.
He unconsciously suppressed his memories of abuse.
Reduce
To turn into powder; pulverize.
Suppress
To prevent publication.
The government suppressed the findings of their research about the true state of the economy.
Reduce
To decrease the valence of (an atom) by adding electrons.
Suppress
To stop a flow or stream.
The rescue team managed to suppress the flow of oil by blasting the drilling hole.
Hot blackcurrant juice mixed with honey may suppress cough.
Reduce
To remove oxygen from (a compound).
Suppress
To forbid the use of evidence at trial because it is improper or was improperly obtained.
Reduce
To add hydrogen to (a compound).
Suppress
(electronics) To reduce unwanted frequencies in a signal.
Reduce
To change to a metallic state by removing nonmetallic constituents; smelt.
Suppress
(military) To stop or prevent the enemy from executing unwanted activities like firing, regrouping, observation or others.
Reduce
(Mathematics) To simplify the form of (an expression, such as a fraction) without changing the value.
Suppress
(obsolete) To hold in place, to keep low.
Reduce
(Medicine) To restore (a fractured or displaced body part) to a normal condition or position.
Suppress
To overpower and crush; to subdue; to put down; to quell.
Every rebellion, when it is suppressed, doth make the subject weaker, and the prince stronger.
Reduce
(Linguistics) To pronounce (a stressed vowel) as the unstressed version of that vowel or as schwa.
Suppress
To keep in; to restrain from utterance or vent; as, to suppress the voice; to suppress a smile.
Reduce
To become diminished.
Suppress
To retain without disclosure; to conceal; not to reveal; to prevent publication of; as, to suppress evidence; to suppress a pamphlet; to suppress the truth.
She suppresses the name, and this keeps him in a pleasing suspense.
Reduce
To lose weight, as by dieting.
Suppress
To stop; to restrain; to arrest the discharges of; as, to suppress a diarrhea, or a hemorrhage.
Reduce
(Biology) To undergo meiosis.
Suppress
To put down by force or authority;
Suppress a nascent uprising
Stamp down on littering
Conquer one's desires
Reduce
(transitive) 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.
Suppress
Come down on or keep down by unjust use of one's authority;
The government oppresses political activists
Reduce
(intransitive) To lose weight.
Suppress
Control and refrain from showing; of emotions
Reduce
(transitive) To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.
To reduce a sergeant to the ranks
Suppress
Keep under control; keep in check;
Suppress a smile
Keep your temper
Keep your cool
Reduce
(transitive) To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture.
To reduce a province or a fort
Suppress
Put out of one's consciousness
Reduce
(transitive) To bring to an inferior state or condition.
To reduce a city to ashes
Reduce
To decrease the liquid content of food by boiling much of its water off.
Reduce
To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.
Formaldehyde can be reduced to form methanol.
Reduce
To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter.
Reduce
To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value.
Reduce
To express the solution of a problem in terms of another (known) algorithm.
Reduce
To convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form.
Reduce
To 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.
Reduce
To perform a reduction; to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment.
Reduce
To reform a line or column from (a square).
Reduce
To strike off the payroll.
Reduce
To annul by legal means.
Reduce
To translate (a book, document, etc.).
A book reduced into English
Reduce
To bring or lead back to any former place or condition.
And to his brother's house reduced his wife.
The sheep must of necessity be scattered, unless the great Shephered of souls oppose, or some of his delegates reduce and direct us.
Reduce
To bring to any inferior state, with respect to rank, size, quantity, quality, value, etc.; to diminish; to lower; to degrade; to impair; as, to reduce a sergeant to the ranks; to reduce a drawing; to reduce expenses; to reduce the intensity of heat.
Nothing so excellent but a man may fasten upon something belonging to it, to reduce it.
Having reducedTheir foe to misery beneath their fears.
Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced.
Reduce
To bring to terms; to humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture; as, to reduce a province or a fort.
Reduce
To bring to a certain state or condition by grinding, pounding, kneading, rubbing, etc.; as, to reduce a substance to powder, or to a pasty mass; to reduce fruit, wood, or paper rags, to pulp.
It were but rightAnd equal to reduce me to my dust.
Reduce
To bring into a certain order, arrangement, classification, etc.; to bring under rules or within certain limits of descriptions and terms adapted to use in computation; as, to reduce animals or vegetables to a class or classes; to reduce a series of observations in astronomy; to reduce language to rules.
Reduce
To change, as numbers, from one denomination into another without altering their value, or from one denomination into others of the same value; as, to reduce pounds, shillings, and pence to pence, or to reduce pence to pounds; to reduce days and hours to minutes, or minutes to days and hours.
Reduce
To add an electron to an atom or ion.
Reduce
To restore to its proper place or condition, as a displaced organ or part; as, to reduce a dislocation, a fracture, or a hernia.
Reduce
Cut down on; make a reduction in;
Reduce your daily fat intake
The employer wants to cut back health benefits
Reduce
Make less complex;
Reduce a problem to a single question
Reduce
Bring to humbler or weaker state or condition;
He reduced the population to slavery
Reduce
Simplify the form of a mathematical equation of expression by substituting one term for another
Reduce
Lower in grade or rank or force somebody into an undignified situation;
She reduced her niece to a servant
Reduce
Be the essential element;
The proposal boils down to a compromise
Reduce
Reduce in size; reduce physically;
Hot water will shrink the sweater
Can you shrink this image?
Reduce
Lessen and make more modest;
Reduce one's standard of living
Reduce
Make smaller;
Reduce an image
Reduce
To remove oxygen from a compound, or cause to react with hydrogen or form a hydride, or to undergo an increase in the number of electrons
Reduce
Narrow or limit;
Reduce the influx of foreigners
Reduce
Put down by force or intimidation;
The government quashes any attempt of an uprising
China keeps down her dissidents very efficiently
The rich landowners subjugated the peasants working the land
Reduce
Undergo meiosis;
The cells reduce
Reduce
Reposition (a broken bone after surgery) back to its normal site
Reduce
Reduce in scope while retaining essential elements;
The manuscript must be shortened
Reduce
Be cooked until very little liquid is left;
The sauce should reduce to one cup
Reduce
Cook until very little liquid is left;
The cook reduced the sauce by boiling it for a long time
Reduce
Lessen the strength or flavor of a solution or mixture;
Cut bourbon
Reduce
Take off weight
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