transitive verb

• 1Reduce (something, especially something unwanted or unpleasant) to the smallest possible amount or degree.

  ‘the aim is to minimize costs’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The school is concentrating on reducing and minimising the amount of litter produced, while encouraging recycling and composting.’
  • ‘This does assume somehow that air transport is a scarce resource, and therefore that the total amount carried must be minimised wherever possible.’
  • ‘You have put off committing yourself as long as possible, and have minimised the amount of warning that France receives.’
  • ‘Immunity from accident cannot be guaranteed, but it is possible to minimise the risk.’
  • ‘Every one of us wants to get the highest possible return while we minimize our risk.’
  • ‘Working alongside the recycling schemes will also be a project aimed at minimising the amount of waste produced by the county in the first place.’
  • ‘Political stability demanded that the creation of inveterate enemies be minimized.’
  • ‘The materials used are usually minimized or changed to reduce production time and cost.’
  • ‘By moving out of these gradually, it may be possible to balance losses against gains and minimise the amount of tax paid.’
  • ‘This step-by-step approach enables an organization to leverage specific third party expertise, minimising both cost and risk.’
  • ‘The reduced complement minimises training costs and increase combat efficiency by making more space, while a larger payload enhances the ship's autonomy.’
  • ‘All of these steps are important in reducing and minimizing the cost that the United States has to pay for what it did.’
  • ‘Go over as much of the cut-in area as possible to minimize any visible changes in texture.’
  • ‘Change is minimised where possible, to allow for as little disruption to the practice as possible.’
  • ‘I have been icing them, keeping my foot elevated, and minimizing the amount of walking I do.’
  • ‘In addition, trappers check their trap lines on a daily basis, minimizing the amount of time the animal waits.’
  • ‘Every possible measure to minimize coalition casualties was taken.’
  • ‘To the extent these reforms succeed they'd yield a double dividend: solving the problems we face now, while minimising the degree of compulsion required in the future.’
  • ‘One variant of the scheme would see the card combined with the new-style photographic driving licence, thus minimising the amount of plastic needing to be carried in the typical wallet.’
  • ‘This involves minimising the amount of waste created in the school and keeping the building and the grounds clean and tidy.’

  Synonyms

  keep down, keep at a minimum, keep to a minimum, reduce, decrease, cut back on, cut down, lessen, curtail, diminish, prune, pare down, shrink

  View synonyms

  1. 1.1Represent or estimate at less than the true value or importance.
     ‘they may minimize, or even overlook, the importance of such beliefs’
     More example sentences

     • ‘He gets the job just because he is your nephew, which makes him harder to fire and minimizes the true importance of IT in your organization.’
     • ‘In ignorance, they seek to belittle it and minimise its importance to the individual.’
     • ‘That manifests itself in a cosy collectivism that seeks to minimise the importance of any problem.’
     • ‘He offends progressives by minimizing the importance of venerable social villains such as poverty.’
     • ‘If the nature of the hope is different and the wait turns out to be longer than we or they expected, that neither erases nor minimizes the value of their witness.’
     • ‘Because evangelization was the ultimate goal, Scales minimizes the importance of the social work conducted at the center.’
     • ‘The earth's importance should not be minimized even when contemplating the heavens.’
     • ‘However, their value is minimized if the attackers can obtain the appropriate keys by other means.’
     • ‘She works hard to make people like her and tries to minimize the importance of grades.’
     • ‘In the case of an individual colleague it is important to encourage a description of what happened, and to begin by accepting this assessment and not minimising the importance of the mistake.’
     • ‘However, others feel that the inclusion of much which is magic into his works minimises the importance of those remarkable insights.’
     • ‘Although Paul minimises the importance of athletic training, he does not dismiss it as worthless.’
     • ‘To describe this as a collection of large digital photos alongside text is to minimise its impact and importance.’
     • ‘We do not want to minimise the importance of clinical negligence as a matter of concern to the health service.’
     • ‘It would be easy to minimize and underestimate the importance of money in later Anglo-Saxon England.’
     • ‘This is an extremely important phase of the war, and its import should not be minimized.’
     • ‘To recognize this political fact and state it bluntly in no way minimizes the criminal repression carried out by the ruling elite in Russia against the Chechen people.’
     • ‘Every since that we've been minimizing the significance and the importance of this process.’
     • ‘First, the television news programs downplayed and minimized it.’
     • ‘None the less, these are important issues and I am not minimising their significance in any way.’
     Synonyms

     belittle, make light of, play down, underestimate, underrate, make little of, downplay, underplay, undervalue, detract from, sell short, de-emphasize, understate, discount, soft-pedal, reduce, lessen, brush aside, gloss over, trivialize, decry, disparage, deprecate, depreciate, denigrate

     View synonyms