decimation

Noun

decimation (countable and uncountable, plural decimations)

1. (Ancient-Rome, strictly) The killing or punishment of every tenth person, usually by lot.
   • By decimation and a tythed death; / If thy Reuenges hunger for that Food, / Which Nature loathes, take thou the deſtin'd tenth, […]c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

   Synonyms:

   tithing

2. (generally) The killing or destruction of any large portion of a population.
   • And the vvhole Army had cauſe to enquire into their own Rebellions, vvhen they ſavv the Lord of Hoſts, vvith a dreadful Decimation, taking off ſo many of our Brethren by the vvorſt of Executioners.1702, Cotton Mather, “Book V (Acts and Monuments. […])”, in Magnalia Christi Americana: Or, the Ecclesiastical History of New-England, from Its First Planting in the Year 1620. unto the Year of Our...
   • General Secretary Mick Lynch said: "It is crystal clear that the planned cutbacks on ScotRail and SWR are just the tip of the iceberg, as cynical employers use the cloak of COVID-19 to smuggle through the decimation of jobs and services on Britain's railways.2021 September 8, “RMT on "war footing" in response to workforce cutback threats”, in RAIL, number 939, page 15
3. A tithe or the act of tithing.
4. The creation of a new sequence comprising only every nth element of a source sequence.
   1. A digital signal-processing technique for reducing the number of samples in a discrete-time signal; downsampling