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Reduce vs. Suppress — What's the Difference?

Reduce vs. Suppress — What's the Difference?

Difference Between Reduce and Suppress

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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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