decimate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to destroy or drastically reduce a large proportion of

   The frost decimated the season's orange crop.

Simplified etymology

Decimate originally referred to the Roman military punishment in which one man in every ten was selected by lot and executed. English first used it for this practice in the late 16th century; it soon broadened to removing or destroying one-tenth and, by the mid-17th century, to any severe loss or destruction.

From Latin decimātus, past participle of decimāre ('to take a tenth'), the Roman military punishment of executing one in every ten, from decimus ('tenth'), from decem ('ten').

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