deduct (dedukt)

t. [ The Philip pians,... • of Philip pos. a people deducted oute of the citie J. Udall, Pref. to Philip pians. 21. To trace out; set forth. For divers great and importunate considerations, which were here too long to be deducted. Mary, Queen of Scots, Letter to Babington (1586), [in Howell's State Trials. 3t. To bring down; reduce. Clerk. Why, sir? alas, 'tis nothing; 'tis but so many months, so many weeks, so many Gnotho. Do not deduct it to days, t'will be the more tedious; and to measure it by hourgla es were intolerable. Middle ton, Mas singer, and Rowley , Old Law, iii. 1. 4. To take away, separate, or remove in numbering, estimating, or calculating; subtract, as a counterbalancing item or particular: as, to deduct lo es from the total receipts; from the amount of profits deduct the freight-charges. 1495 The late king had also agreed that two and a half per cent should be deducted out of the pay of the foreign troops. Bp . Burnet , Hist. Own Times, an. 1711. =Syn. 4. Deduct, Subtract. These words cannot properly be used interchangeably. Deduct is to lead away, set aside, in a general or distributive sense; subtract, to draw off, remove, in a literal or collective sense. In settling a mercantile account, certain items, as charges, lo es, etc., are deducted by being added together and their total subtracted from the grand total of the transaction. From a parcel of goods of known value or number articles are subtracted or literally taken away as required; the value or number of the remainder at any time may be ascertained by de ducting the value or number of those taken from the ori ginal package; and this again is effected by subtracting the figures representing the smaller amount from those representing the larger.