| 释义 |
dec·i·mate
\ˈdesəˌmāt, usu -ād.+V\ transitive verb
(-ed/-ing/-s)
Etymology: Latin decimatus, past participle of decimare, from decimus tenth, from decem ten — more at ten
1. : to select by lot and kill every tenth man of
< decimate a regiment >
2.
a. : to take a tenth from : tax to the amount of one-tenth
b.
(1) : to take a tenth part of (ore) by means of a sampling device
(2) : to take every tenth one of
< decimate carloads >
3. : to destroy a considerable part of : reduce to the point of almost complete extermination
< war, which … nearly decimated the Seminoles — R.F.Warner >
: decrease greatly
< inflation has decimated … buying power — New Republic >
4. : to rearrange (an alphabet or text) into another sequence by taking every nth item until all are taken (as, if n is 3 ABCDEFG becomes ADGCFBE if the counting applies to the complete original sequence but ADGECFB if the letters previously taken out are skipped in counting) |