To Decrease Something, To Decrease, To Reduce, To Reduce Something
transitive verb, godan verb
Because the hiragana ends with an う sound, you know this word is a verb. The kanji itself means decrease so the verb vocab version is to decrease something. You can differentiate this from 減る because with this one, you are the one that is going to be doing the decreasing. The rush (らす) of decreasing something fills your veins.
へらす
The reading is the same as 減る, so if you know that reading you should know this one.
先生に宿題をちょっとだけ減らしてもらいました。
I had my teacher decrease the number of homework assignments I was given.
クリームの量を減らすようお願いしたんですが、聞き入れてもらえませんでした。
I asked them to reduce the amount of cream, but they didn't accept my request.
その疫病は、河豚の数をそれまでの水準の半分に減らした。
The plague reduced the number of blowfish to half its previous level.