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decimate
[ des-uh-meyt ]
/ ˈdɛs əˌmeɪt /
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verb (used with object), dec·i·mat·ed, dec·i·mat·ing.
to kill or destroy a great number or proportion of: The population was decimated by a plague.
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.
to cause to suffer great loss or harm: The constant eruptions that spewed forth decimated the forest and turned it to ash.
to select by lot and kill every tenth person of.
Obsolete. to take a tenth of or from.
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Origin of decimate
historical usage of decimate
The earliest English sense of decimate is “to select by lot and execute every tenth soldier of (a unit).” The extended senses “to destroy a great proportion of; greatly reduce or damage” have been criticized on etymological grounds, although these usages are common in standard English: Cholera decimated the urban population. Because the etymological sense of one-tenth remains to some extent, decimate is not ordinarily used with exact fractions or percentages: Drought has destroyed (not decimated ) nearly 80 percent of the cattle.
OTHER WORDS FROM decimate
dec·i·ma·tion [des-uh-mey-shuhn], /ˌdɛs əˈmeɪ ʃən/, noundec·i·ma·tor, nounWORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH decimate
decimate , destroy (see word story at the current entry)Words nearby decimate
decimal notation, decimal place, decimal point, decimals, decimal system, decimate, decimated, decimation, décime, decimeter, decimetre
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use decimate in a sentence
British Dictionary definitions for decimate
decimate
/ (ˈdɛsɪˌmeɪt) /
verb (tr)
to destroy or kill a large proportion ofa plague decimated the population
(esp in the ancient Roman army) to kill every tenth man of (a mutinous section)
Derived forms of decimate
decimation, noundecimator, nounWord Origin for decimate
C17: from Latin decimāre, from decimus tenth, from decem ten
usage for decimate
One talks about the whole of something being decimated, not a part: disease decimated the population, not disease decimated most of the population
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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