SUBTRACT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does subtract mean? 

• SUBTRACT (verb)
  The verb SUBTRACT has 2 senses:

1. make a subtraction

2. take off or away

  Familiarity information: SUBTRACT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUBTRACT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they subtract    ... he / she / it subtracts   
Past simple: subtracted   
Past participle: subtracted   
-ing form: subtracting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a subtraction

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

deduct; subtract; take off

Context example:

subtract this amount from my paycheck

Hypernyms (to "subtract" is one way to...):

calculate; cipher; compute; cypher; figure; reckon; work out (make a mathematical calculation or computation)

Domain category:

arithmetic (the branch of pure mathematics dealing with the theory of numerical calculations)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "subtract"):

carry back (deduct a loss or an unused credit from taxable income for a prior period)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Antonym:

add (make an addition by combining numbers)

Derivation:

subtraction (the act of subtracting (removing a part from the whole))

subtraction (an arithmetic operation in which the difference between two numbers is calculated)

subtractive (constituting or involving subtraction)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Take off or away

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

this prefix was subtracted when the word was borrowed from French

Hypernyms (to "subtract" is one way to...):

bring down; cut; cut back; cut down; reduce; trim; trim back; trim down (cut down on; make a reduction in)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

There were but four rooms in the little house—three, when Martin's was subtracted.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A light microscopic technique in which the light that does not come into contact with the structures or details of interest is subtracted from the ocular image.

(Dark Field Microscopy, NCI Thesaurus)

A technique which subtracts two images that are obtained before and after contrast media is administered to the patient for the purpose of studying blood vessels.

(Digital Subtraction Angiography, NCI Thesaurus)

For example a Data Element that is derived/created by subtracting two dates represented by other data elements would be a Calculated Representation Type.

(Derivation Type, NCI Thesaurus)

The determination of the concentrations of anions, such as chloride and bicarbonate, subtracted from the concentration of cations, such as sodium and potassium, present in a plasma or serum sample.

(Anion Gap Measurement, NCI Thesaurus)

The process is akin to determining the unknown weight of an object by adding or subtracting known weights to a balance scale until the two sides balance.

("Russian Doll" Galaxy Clusters Reveal Information About Dark Energy, NASA)

A method of delineating blood vessels by subtracting a tissue background image from an image of tissue plus intravascular contrast material that attenuates the X-ray photons.

(Digital Subtraction Angiography, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

In this normalization process, each value subtracts the column mean and is divided by the column standard deviation.

(Discretize, NCI Thesaurus)

Measures the change in rate over time by taking the number of occurrences for the current year, subtracting the number of occurrences for the previous year, dividing the difference by the number of occurrences for the previous year, and then multiply the dividend by one hundred.

(Annual Percent Change, NCI Thesaurus)

If we subtract the time Mercury is retrograde from Mars’ tour and add a little extra time beyond the day Mercury goes direct, I feel your best time to make home-related decisions would be next month from March 11 (a lovely day when the Sun and Jupiter will be in sync) to March 30.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)