decimating

Verb

decimate (third-person singular simple present decimates, present participle decimating, simple past and past participle decimated)

1. (archaic) To kill one-tenth of (a group), (historical, specifically) as a military punishment in the Roman army selected by lot, usually carried out by the surviving soldiers.
   • God sometimes decimates or tithes delinquent persons, and they died for a common crime, according as God hath cast their lot in the decrees of predestination.c. 1650, Jeremy Taylor, Vol. I

   Synonyms:

   tithe

2. To destroy or remove one-tenth of (something).
   • ...there will be eight hundred and ten laborers producing as nine hundred, while, to accomplish their purpose, they would have to produce as one thousand... Here, then, we have a society which is continually decimating itself...1840, P.J. Proudhon, What is Property?, page 164
3. (broadly) To devastate: to reduce or destroy significantly but not completely.
   • [England] had decimated itself for a question which involved no principle, and led to no result.p. 1856, James Froude, History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth
4. (obsolete) To exact a tithe or other 10% tax.
   • You forge theſe things prettily; but I have heard you are as poor as a decimated Cavalier [referring to Cromwell's ten per cent. income-tax on Cavaliers], and had not one foot of land in all the vvorld.1667 (revival performance), John Dryden, The Wild Gallant: A Comedy. […], In the Savoy [London]: […] T[homas] Newcomb for H[enry] Herringman, […], published 1669, →OCLC, Act II, page 18
5. (obsolete, rare) To tithe: to pay a 10% tax.
   • [I]t is a deed of higheſt charitie to help undeceive the people, and a vvork vvorthieſt your autoritie, in all things els authors, aſſertors and novv recoverers of our libertie, to deliver us, the only people of all Proteſtants left ſtill undeliverd, from the oppreſſions of a Simonious decimating...1659, J[ohn] M[ilton], “To the Parlament of the Commonwealth of England with the Dominions therof”, in Considerations Touching the Likeliest Means to Remove Hirelings out of the Church. […], London...
6. (obsolete) To divide into tenths; to decimalize.
   • For example, in multiplying 3 by 0.2, the 3 units have to be decimated—that is, divided into 10 equal parts, obtaining 3 “deci-units” for each part, and then 2 such parts taken, giving as the answer 6 deci-units, or 0.6.1910 January, “Multiplication of Decimals”, in The Practical Teacher, volume 30, number 7, page 414

See all 11 meanings of decimate