decimate

verb

dec·​i·​mate ˈde-sə-ˌmāt 

decimated; decimating

transitive verb

1

: to select by lot and kill every tenth man of

decimate a regiment

2

: to exact a tax of 10 percent from

poor as a decimated Cavalier

—John Dryden

3

a

: to reduce drastically especially in number

cholera decimated the population

Kamieniecki's return comes at a crucial time for a pitching staff that has been decimated by injuries.

—Jason Diamos

b

: to cause great destruction or harm to

firebombs decimated the city

an industry decimated by recession

decimation

ˌde-sə-ˈmā-shən 

noun

Did you know?

The connection between decimate and the number ten harks back to a brutal practice of the army of ancient Rome. A unit that was guilty of a severe crime (such as mutiny) was punished by selecting and executing one-tenth of its soldiers, thereby scaring the remaining nine-tenths into obedience. The word comes from Latin decem, meaning "ten." Decimate strayed from its "tenth" meaning and nowadays refers to the act of destroying or hurting something in great numbers.

Synonyms

• annihilate
• cream
• demolish
• desolate
• destroy
• devastate
• do in
• extinguish
• nuke
• pull down
• pulverize
• raze
• rub out
• ruin
• shatter
• smash
• tear down
• total
• vaporize
• waste
• wrack
• wreck

Examples of decimate in a Sentence

This kind of moth is responsible for decimating thousands of trees in our town.

Budget cuts have decimated public services in small towns.

Recent Examples on the Web

When beneficial microbes are decimated, dangerous bugs have fewer competitors and secondary infections can take hold. —Corinne Purtill, Los Angeles Times, 12 June 2024

Record numbers of federal senior civil servants quit as early as 2017, and by the time of Biden’s inauguration in 2021, several key agencies had been quite literally decimated. —Jon D. Michaels, Foreign Affairs, 10 June 2024

The Lewis’ home was still safe as of Sunday afternoon, but Christine spoke to a friend at about 10 p.m. Saturday whose 500-acre ranch had burned up, decimating multiple structures. —Benjy Egel, Sacramento Bee, 2 June 2024

The new dynamic, together with rising tensions between China and the West and an economic downturn in China that has decimated much of the deal-making that once made Hong Kong tick, is casting a pall over the city’s once lively economy. —Alexandra Stevenson, New York Times, 28 May 2024

Word History

Etymology

Latin decimatus, past participle of decimare, from decimus tenth, from decem ten

First Known Use

1660, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

decimate

verb

dec·​i·​mate ˈdes-ə-ˌmāt 

decimated; decimating

1

: to pick by lot and kill every tenth man of

the Roman army would decimate a legion for cowardice

2

: to destroy a large part of

a population decimated by an epidemic

decimation

ˌdes-ə-ˈmā-shən 

noun