minimize
verbUK /ˈmɪn.ɪ.maɪz/ · US /ˈmɪn.ɪˌmaɪz/
Etymology From Latin minimus + -ize.
1
To make (something) smaller or as small as possible; shrink; reduce.
- We have to minimize the budget.
- Try to minimize your biases.
3 more examples
- Terry, author of the indispensable Terry's Guide to Mexico, has a name for it – atrabiliousness. "The defect of many of the murals," he says, speaking of those in the orphan asylum, "is the facial atrabiliousness of some of the subjects. To the observer it minimizes the grandeur of the conception […]"1948, Willard Price, Roving South, Rio Grande to Patagonia, New York, N.Y.: J. Day Co., →OCLC, page 13:
- For accurate stopping, the drive must incorporate means for minimizing inertia overdrift.1954, Instruments and Control Systems - Volume 27, page 1466:
- One way to minimize or mitigate the copycat effect is to deemphasize the perpetrator and deglorify the violence in real and fictional stories.2023, Jacqueline B. Helfgott, Copycat Crime:
2
To relegate or assign (something) to a less insignificant status; diminish.
- The insurance adjuster tried to minimize the extent of the damage to lessen the company's exposure to liability.
3
Computing, Engineering, Graphical user interface, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences To remove (a window) from the main display area, collapsing it to an icon or caption.
- I didn't close anything, but I minimized all the windows so I could see the desktop.
4
To treat (someone) in a slighting manner.
- […] father who had never openly minimized him or anything he did […]1993, Jan McDaniel, One Golden Summer, page 95:
5
To treat as trivial or insignificant; to trivialize.
- to minimize someone's feelings
- Derived terms
- minimand, minimizable, minimization, minimizer, unminimize, unminimized