ALL meanings of decimate
dec·i·mate
D d - verb decimate To decimate something such as a group of people or animals means to destroy a very large number of them. 3
- verb decimate To decimate a system or organization means to reduce its size and effectiveness greatly. 3
- verb decimate to destroy or kill a large proportion of 3
- verb decimate (esp in the ancient Roman army) to kill every tenth man of (a mutinous section) 3
- verb transitive decimate to select by lot and kill every tenth one of 3
- verb transitive decimate to destroy or kill a large part of 3
- verb transitive decimate to take a tenth part of; tithe 3
- verb with object decimate to destroy a great number or proportion of: The population was decimated by a plague. 1
- verb with object decimate to select by lot and kill every tenth person of. 1
- verb with object decimate Obsolete. to take a tenth of or from. 1
- transitive verb decimate kill 10 percent of 1
- transitive verb decimate destroy, lay waste to 1
- noun decimate Kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage or part of. 1
- noun decimate The earliest English sense of decimate is “to select by lot and execute every tenth soldier of (a unit).” The extended sense “destroy a great number or proportion of” developed in the 19th century: Cholera decimated the urban population. Because the etymological sense of one-tenth remains to some extent, decimate is not ordinarily used with exact fractions or percentages: Drought has destroyed (not decimated) nearly 80 percent of the cattle. 1
- noun decimate (Obsolete (No longer in use)) A tithe or other 10% tax or payment. 0
- noun decimate (Obsolete (No longer in use)) A tenth of something. 0
- noun decimate (Obsolete (No longer in use)) A set of ten items. 0
- verb decimate (properly) To kill one-tenth of a group, (chiefly historical) as a military punishment in the Roman army selected by lot, usually carried out by the surviving soldiers. 0
- verb decimate To destroy or remove one-tenth of anything. 0
- verb decimate (generally) To devastate: to reduce or destroy drastically but not completely. 0
- verb decimate (Obsolete (No longer in use)) To exact a tithe or other 10% tax. 0
- verb decimate (Obsolete (No longer in use)) (rare) To tithe: to pay a 10% tax. 0
- verb decimate (Obsolete (No longer in use)) To decimalize: to divide into tenths, hundredths, &c. 0
- verb decimate (improperly) To reduce to one-tenth: to destroy or remove nine-tenths of anything. 0
- verb decimate (computer graphics) To replace a high-resolution model with another of lower but acceptable quality. 0