To reduce something, especially something unwanted or unpleasant, to the smallest possible amount or degree. The company implemented new strategies to minimize costs.
To make something appear less important or smaller than it actually is. She tried to minimize her role in the project to avoid taking responsibility.
To reduce the size of a window on a computer screen to an icon or a taskbar button. You can minimize the application if you need to work on something else.
Mathematics, computing: to find or achieve the minimum value of (a function, cost, or objective). The gradient-descent algorithm iteratively adjusts the parameters to minimize the loss function.