transitive verb. To destroy or kill a large part of (a group of people or organisms).

transitive verb. undefined

transitive verb. To inflict great destruction or damage on.

transitive verb. To reduce markedly in amount.

transitive verb. To select by lot and kill one in every ten of (a group of soldiers).

To take the tenth part of or from; tithe.

To select by lot and put to death every tenth man of: as, to decimate a captured army or a body of prisoners or mutineers (a barbarity occasionally practised in antiquity).

Loosely, to destroy a great but indefinite number or proportion of: as, the inhabitants were decimated by fever; the troops were decimated by the enemy's fire.

transitive verb. To take the tenth part of; to tithe.

transitive verb. To select by lot and punish with death every tenth man of.

transitive verb. To destroy a considerable part of

verb. To kill one man chosen by lot out of every ten in a legion or other military group.

verb. To reduce anything by one in ten, or ten percent.

verb. To exact a tithe, or tax of 10 percent.

verb. To reduce to one-tenth.

verb. To severely reduce; to destroy almost completely.

verb. To replace a high-resolution model with one of lower resolution but acceptably similar appearance.

verb. kill in large numbers

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

"I always flinch when I hear someone use the word decimate to mean "wipe out," as in, "The Sioux deci­mated Custer's men.""

decimation  

decimated  decimating  

kill  

annihilate  bring to ruin  butcher  commit carnage  commit genocide  

decimated  decimates  decimating