different between reduce vs taper

English

Etymology

From Middle English reducen, from Old French reducer, from Latin red?c? (“reduce”); from re- (“back”) + d?c? (“lead”). See duke, and compare with redoubt.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???dju?s/, /???d?u?s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???du?s/
• Rhymes: -u?s

Verb

reduce (third-person singular simple present reduces, present participle reducing, simple past and past participle reduced)

1. (transitive) To bring down the size, quantity, quality, value or intensity of something; to diminish, to lower.
2. (intransitive) To lose weight.
3. (transitive) To bring to an inferior rank; to degrade, to demote.
   • 1815, Walter Scott, Guy Mannering

     My father, the eldest son of an ancient but reduced family, left me with little.

   • a. 1694, John Tillotson, The Folly of Scoffing at Religion

     nothing so excellent but a man may falten upon something or other belonging to it whereby to reduce it .

   • 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes

     Having reduced their foe to misery beneath their fears.

   • Hester Prynne was shocked at the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced.
4. (transitive) To humble; to conquer; to subdue; to capture.

5. (transitive) To bring to an inferior state or condition.

6. (transitive, cooking) To decrease the liquid content of food by boiling much of its water off.
   • 2011, Edward Behr and James MacGuire, The Art of Eating Cookbook: Essential Recipes from the First 25 Years.

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

7. (transitive, chemistry) To add electrons / hydrogen or to remove oxygen.
8. (transitive, metallurgy) To produce metal from ore by removing nonmetallic elements in a smelter.
9. (transitive, mathematics) To simplify an equation or formula without changing its value.
10. (transitive, computer science) To express the solution of a problem in terms of another (known) algorithm.
11. (transitive, logic) To convert a syllogism to a clearer or simpler form
12. (transitive, law) To convert to written form. (Usage note: this verb almost always appears as "reduce to writing".)

13. (transitive, medicine) To perform a reduction; to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment.
14. (transitive, military) To reform a line or column from (a square).
15. (transitive, military) To strike off the payroll.
16. (transitive, Scotland, law) To annul by legal means.
17. (transitive, obsolete) To translate (a book, document, etc.).

Synonyms

• (to bring down): cut, decrease, lower
• (cooking): inspissate; see also Thesaurus:thicken

Antonyms

• (to bring down): increase

Related terms

Translations

See also

• reducing agent

References

• reduce in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Italian

Etymology

From Latin redux (“that returns”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?r?.du.t??e/

Adjective

reduce (plural reduci) (da)

1. returning (from)

   Synonym: ritornato

Noun

reduce m or f (plural reduci)

1. survivor

   Synonym: sopravvissuto

2. veteran (of a conflict)

   Synonyms: veterano, ex combattente

Anagrams

• ducere

Latin

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /re?du?.ke/, [r??d?u?k?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /re?du.t??e/, [r??d?u?t???]

Verb

red?ce

1. second-person singular present active imperative of red?c?

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?re.du.ke/, [?r?d??k?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?re.du.t??e/, [?r??d?ut???]
• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?re.du.ke/, [?r?d??k?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?re.du.t??e/, [?r??d?ut???]

Adjective

r?duce

1. ablative masculine singular of r??dux
2. ablative feminine singular of r??dux
3. ablative neuter singular of r??dux

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin reducere, French réduire, based on duce. Compare the inherited doublet ar?duce.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /re?dut?e/, [re??d?ut?e?]

Verb

a reduce (third-person singular present reduce, past participle redus) 3rd conj.

1. (transitive) to reduce, to lessen

Conjugation

Derived terms

Related terms

• duce

See also

• ar?duce

Spanish

Verb

reduce

1. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of reducir.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of reducir.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present indicative form of reducir.

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?te?p?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?te?p?/
• Rhymes: -e?p?(?)
• Homophone: tapir

Etymology 1

From Middle English taper, from Old English tapor (“taper, candle, wick of a lamp”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Latin papyrus (“papyrus", used in Mediaeval times to mean "wick of a candle”), or of Celtic origin related to Irish tapar (“taper”), Welsh tampr (“a taper, torch”). Compare Sanskrit ???? (tápati, “(it) warms, gives out heat; to be hot; to heat”). More at tepid.

Noun

taper (plural tapers)

1. A slender wax candle; a small lighted wax candle
   • ~1603, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act I, scene I, line 157:

     strike on the tinder, ho!/ Give me a taper.

   • 1913, Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Change

     Love used to carry a bow, you know,

     But now he carries a taper;

     It is either a length of wax aglow,

     Or a twist of lighted paper.

2. (by extension) a small light.
3. A tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness and/or cross section in an elongated object

   the taper of a spire

   The legs of the table had a slight taper to them.

   • 2005, Michael Ellis, Apollo Rises (page 15)

     Her hair hangs over her ears and flows to a taper at the back of her neck where it is held in place with a wide and circular black clasp.

4. A thin stick used for lighting candles, either a wax-coated wick or a slow-burning wooden rod.

Derived terms

• taperwise

Translations

Verb

taper (third-person singular simple present tapers, present participle tapering, simple past and past participle tapered)

1. (transitive) To make thinner or narrower at one end.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 3

     Though true cylinders without — within, the villainous green goggling glasses deceitfully tapered downwards to a cheating bottom.

2. (intransitive) To diminish gradually.

Synonyms

• narrow

Derived terms

• taper off

Translations

Adjective

taper

1. Tapered; narrowing to a point.

Etymology 2

tape +? -er

Noun

taper (plural tapers)

1. (weaving) One who operates a tape machine.
2. Someone who works with tape or tapes.

Anagrams

• Peart, Petra, apert, apter, parte, pater, peart, petar, petra, prate, preta, reapt, repat, retap, trape, treap

Danish

Verb

taper

1. present of tape

French

Etymology

From Middle French taper, from Old French tapper, taper (“to tap”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *tapp?n, *dabb?n (“to strike”) or from Middle Low German tappen, tapen (“to tap, rap, strike”); both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dab- (“to strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?eb?- (“to beat, strike, stun, be speechless”). Related to German tappen (“to grope, fumble”), Dutch deppen (“to dab”), Icelandic tappa, tapsa, tæpta (“to tap”). Related to dab.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ta.pe/
• Rhymes: -e
• Homophones: tapai, tapé, tapée, tapées, tapés, tapez

Verb

taper

1. (transitive) to slap, knock, beat
2. (transitive) to type (use a keyboard or typewriter)
3. (transitive with sur) to hit, beat, rap
4. (intransitive) to beat down (of the sun); to go to one's head (of wine etc.)
5. (intransitive, slang) to stink, pong, reek
6. (reflexive, slang) to put away (a meal etc.)

   Je me suis tapé un bon petit hamburger hier soir.

7. (reflexive, vulgar, slang) to fuck (have sex)

   Il s'est tapé la fille de son patron.

8. (reflexive) to put up with

Conjugation

Derived terms

See also

• frapper
• cogner

Further reading

• “taper” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• parte, pâtre, prêta, tarpé

Middle English

Alternative forms

• tapre, tapyr, tapir, tapor, tapour, tapur, tapper

Etymology

From Old English tapor, possibly from Latin pap?rus (if so, a doublet of paper).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ta?p?r/

Noun

taper (plural tapres)

1. taper (thin candle)

Descendants

• English: taper

References

• “t?per, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Norman

Pronunciation

Verb

taper (gerund tap'thie)

1. (Jersey, onomatopoeia) to hit, knock

Derived terms

• taper raide (“to hit hard”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From tape (“to lose”) +? -er.

Noun

taper m (definite singular taperen, indefinite plural tapere, definite plural taperne)

1. a loser

Related terms

• tapar (Nynorsk)

Verb

taper

1. present tense of tape (“to lose”)

Etymology 2

Noun

taper m

1. indefinite plural of tape

Verb

taper

1. present tense of tape (“to tape”)

References

• “taper” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “taper” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Anagrams

• paret, parte, pater, patre, Petra, prate, rapet, rapte

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

taper

1. present of tape (to lose)

Walloon

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

taper

1. to throw