Multilinear reduction on the Boolean cube

Replace each positive power $x_i^a$ in a monomial by $x_i$ and combine equal monomials. The result is a multilinear polynomial agreeing with the original polynomial at every point of $\{0,1{\}}^n$, because $x_i^a=x_i$ there for $a\ge 1$. Its polynomial degree does not increase. This reduction identifies polynomial functions on the Boolean lattice with their unique square-free monomial representations: uniqueness follows by successively evaluating at characteristic vectors of sets in increasing order of size.