DECIMATE

eliminate, annihilate, extinguish, eradicate, wipe out, decimate, carry off

(verb) kill in large numbers; “the plague wiped out an entire population”

decimate

(verb) kill one in every ten, as of mutineers in Roman armies

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Verb

decimate (third-person singular simple present decimates, present participle decimating, simple past and past participle decimated)

(archaic) To kill one-tenth of a group, (historical, specifically) as a military punishment in the Roman army selected by lot, usually carried out by the surviving soldiers.

To destroy or remove one-tenth of anything.

(loosely) To devastate: to reduce or destroy significantly but not completely.

(obsolete) To exact a tithe or other 10% tax

(obsolete, rare) To tithe: to pay a 10% tax.

(obsolete) To decimalize: to divide into tenths, hundredths etc.

(proscribed) To reduce to one-tenth: to destroy or remove nine-tenths of anything.

(computer graphics) To replace a high-resolution model with another of lower but acceptable quality.

Usage notes

Senses of decimate other than "to reduce by one in ten" are occasionally proscribed but "to devastate" has now become the more common usage. The sense "to reduce to one in ten" is etymologically unsound and omitted by the OED but increasingly common.

Synonyms

• (to kill 10% of): tithe

• (to kill 90% of): tithe

• (to lay waste): See devastate

• (to pay a 10% tax): See tithe

• (to divide into ⅒s): See decimalize

Coordinate terms

• (reduce proportionately, by single aliquot part): tertiate (1/3), quintate (1/5), sextate (1/6), septimate (1/7), decimate (1/10), duodecimate (1/12), centesimate (1/100)

Noun

decimate (plural decimates)

(obsolete) A tithe or other 10% tax or payment.

(obsolete) A tenth of something.

(obsolete) A set of ten items.

Anagrams

• edematic, medicate

Source: Wiktionary

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Dec"i*mate, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Decimated; p. pr. & vb. n. Decimating.] Etym: [L. decimatus, p. p. of decimare to decimate (in senses 1 & 2), fr. decimus tenth. See Decimal.]

1. To take the tenth part of; to tithe. Johnson.

2. To select by lot and punish with death every tenth man of; as, to decimate a regiment as a punishment for mutiny. Macaulay.

3. To destroy a considerable part of; as, to decimate an army in battle; to decimate a people by disease.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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