decimate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to kill or destroy a great number or proportion of.
The population was decimated by a plague.
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to greatly reduce in number or amount.
From 1975-1981, our country was not driving the space exploration agenda, and our aerospace workforce was decimated.
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to cause to suffer great loss or harm.
The constant eruptions that spewed forth decimated the forest and turned it to ash.
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to select by lot and kill every tenth person of.
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Obsolete. to take a tenth of or from.
verb
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to destroy or kill a large proportion of
a plague decimated the population
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(esp in the ancient Roman army) to kill every tenth man of (a mutinous section)
Usage
One talks about the whole of something being decimated, not a part: disease decimated the population, not disease decimated most of the population
Other Word Forms
- decimation noun
- decimator noun
Etymology
Origin of decimate
First recorded in 1590–1600; from Latin decimātus, past participle of decimāre “to punish every tenth man chosen by lot,” verbal derivative of decimus “tenth,” derivative of decem “ten”; ten, -ate 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In Tudor's defence, he took over a shell-shocked and struggling squad decimated by injuries and stripped of confidence.
From BBC
Ukraine, whose conventional navy, like Iran’s, has been largely destroyed, has used naval drones to target Russian warships, decimating the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
He has inherited a squad decimated by injuries and stripped of all confidence.
From BBC
Wherever she is deployed, she will be a constant menace to a backline that has been decimated by injury.
From BBC
BERLIN—After strikes that decimated much of Iran’s leadership, the country’s top diplomat has become the chief messenger of a regime that says it won’t negotiate.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
