Was the “to kill every tenth man” meaning the original use of decimate in English? Yes, but not by much. It took only a few decades for decimate to acquire its broader, familiar meaning of “to severely …

DECIMATE definition: to kill or destroy a great number or proportion of. See examples of decimate used in a sentence.

DECIMATE definition: 1. to kill a large number of something, or to reduce something severely: 2. to kill a large number…. Learn more.

Nov 1, 2025 · 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 …

Definition of decimate verb in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

To decimate something such as a group of people or animals means to destroy a very large number of them. The pollution could decimate the river's thriving population of kingfishers.

dec′i·ma′tion n. Usage Note: Decimate originally referred to the killing of every tenth person, a punishment used in the Roman army for mutinous legions. Today this meaning is commonly …

If something is drastically reduced or killed, especially in number, you can say it was decimated. "The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico decimated the wildlife along the coast." The verb decimate originally …

Dec 19, 2025 · The verb decimate originally alluded to the Roman punishment of executing one man in ten of a mutinous legion. Historically, the meaning of the word decimate is ‘kill one in every ten of (a …

decimate, v. meanings, etymology, pronunciation and more in the Oxford English Dictionary