minimise
part of speech
verb (minimise, minimises, minimised, minimising; US spelling minimize)
meaning for a pupil
1) To make something as small or as little as possible: minimise the risk. tree →
2) To make something seem less important or serious than it is: don't minimise her worries. tree →
3) (computing) To make a window on a screen shrink to a small button or icon. tree →
sense in the lessons
In safety lessons we «minimise risks» by wearing helmets and following rules. In maths and science, «minimise» means find the smallest value (for example, the least cost or the least waste). On computers you minimise a window. Phrases: minimise the risk, minimise waste, minimise the window.
examples
- Wear a helmet to minimise the risk of head injury. tree →
- Let's minimise waste by recycling. tree →
- Minimise the window and open the game again. tree →
- He minimised the problem, saying it was nothing. tree →
- We want to minimise the cost of the trip. tree →
- Close the door to minimise noise. tree →
- Find the shortest route to minimise travel time. tree →
- Don't minimise your friend's feelings. tree →
note
UK/Australia/NZ spelling: minimise; US/Canada spelling: minimize. Opposite: maximise. In maths problems «minimise» means find the smallest possible number (the minimum). Noun: minimum; adjective: minimal.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «minimise» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.