i Register
In some senses, decimate is marked as archaic, obsolete, rare. Watch for register when choosing this word.
decimate
UK /ˈdɛsɪmeɪt/ US /ˈdɛsəmeɪt/
verb 5noun 3
Collocations
5ADJ.
inside, potential
VERB + DECIMATE
begged, fires
DECIMATE + NOUN
israeli, koala, planet, populations, roman, yours
PREP.
from, in, on
ADV.
instead
Definitions
verb
1
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.
God sometimes decimates or tithes delinquent persons, and they died for a common crime, according as God hath cast their lot in the decrees of predestination.
Said to have been martyred as a Christian legionary commander of late Roman times for having refused an imperial order to kill one in ten (that is, decimate in the Roman meaning of the word) of the soldiers of another legion which had gone into revolt...
2
To destroy or remove one-tenth of (something).
...there will be eight hundred and ten laborers producing as nine hundred, while, to accomplish their purpose, they would have to produce as one thousand... Here, then, we have a society which is continually decimating itself...
3
To devastate: to reduce or destroy significantly but not completely.
[England] had decimated itself for a question which involved no principle, and led to no result.
Um, some sort of power overload. I'm afraid it decimated your breakfast.
4
To exact a tithe or other 10% tax.
You forge theſe things prettily; but I have heard you are as poor as a decimated Cavalier [referring to Cromwell's ten per cent. income-tax on Cavaliers], and had not one foot of land in all the vvorld.
In addition, an ordinance was published that “all who had ever borne arms for the king, or declared themselves to be of the royal party, should be decimated, that is, pay a tenth part of all the estate which they had left, to support the charge which the commonwealth was put to...
5
To tithe: to pay a 10% tax.
[I]t is a deed of higheſt charitie to help undeceive the people, and a vvork vvorthieſt your autoritie, in all things els authors, aſſertors and novv recoverers of our libertie, to deliver us, the only people of all Proteſtants left ſtill undeliverd, from the oppreſſions of a Simonious decimating clergie; […]
noun
1
A tithe or other 10% tax or payment.
2
A tenth of something.
3
A set of ten items.
Thesaurus
Synonyms
verb — kill in large numbers
Antonyms
Idioms & Phrases
Example Bank
601
God sometimes decimates or tithes delinquent persons, and they died for a common crime, according as God hath cast their lot in the decrees of predestination.
Wiktionary02
Said to have been martyred as a Christian legionary commander of late Roman times for having refused an imperial order to kill one in ten (that is, decimate in the Roman meaning of the word) of the so
Wiktionary03
...where Caesar threatened to disband Legio X after a mutiny. The men begged him to decimate them instead, and Caesar relented in the same way that Titus refrained from executing this cavalryman after
Wiktionary04
David Lindenmayer, a professor of ecology at the Australian National University, says droughts and fires can decimate koala populations.
Tatoeba · #835328905
Our team will decimate yours on the field tomorrow.
Tatoeba · #898336006
Hezbollah has the potential to decimate Israeli forces inside Lebanon.
Tatoeba · #11578770Usage Notes
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