decimate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb kill one in every ten, as of mutineers in Roman armies
  2. verb kill in large numbers
    annihilate; carry off; eliminate; wipe out; extinguish; eradicate.
    • the plague wiped out an entire population

WordNet

Dec"i*mate transitive verb
Etymology
L. decimatus, p. p. of decimare to decimate (in senses 1 & 2), fr. decimus tenth. See Decimal.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Decimated ; present participle & verbal noun Decimating
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913