Other forms: decimated, decimating, decimates
To decimate is to destroy a large part of something. Decimate the population, decimated by disease, decimate the stocks.
Purists insist it means to kill one in ten, from the Roman punishment of a mutinous legion, and everybody else uses it for heavy losses of any size. The strict sense lost long ago, and the argument continues anyway.
1verbdecimateTo destroy a large part of something.
“The disease decimated the rabbit population, leaving only a few alive.”
decimate is a destroying.
Latin decimare means to take a tenth, from decem, ten, from the Roman punishment of executing one soldier in ten.
Latin
decimātus
English, today
decimate
Built from
The verb is first attested in 1591, the noun in 1641; Latin decimātus, perfect passive participle of decimō (“to kill one tenth; to tithe”) (see, from -ate and -ate), from decimus (“tenth”) + -ō. As a noun, via Latin decimatus (“tithing area; tithing rights”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA