decimation

How To Use decimation In A Sentence

• A mechanical shovel was used to load lorries resulting in the decimation of the surface.
• Five hundred men were caught shirking their duty; one out of every ten was selected for execution, which is why the procedure was called decimation analogous to our word decimal, that is, one-tenth. The Spartacus War
• Mummius had worked feverishly to devise the quickest and simplest method of procedure, as the most important numerical division for decimation was the decury of ten men; it went without saying that Crassus himself had been an enormous help with the logistics. Fortune's Favorites
• They had the job of dealing punishments, such as decimation, where one soldier out of ten was selected for the wrongdoings of another, and the other nine soldiers would stone the luckless soldier to death.
• In 1853 Perry was greeted with an earthquake centered right in the city, causing further decimation.
• They say their ongoing dispute is no longer just about pay but also about preventing the decimation of Britain's fire service.
• No, the prologue for the decimation (which has already happened, since "decimation" refers to reduction by one-tenth, and since 2006 you've lost well more than that) was that people like you, except perhaps with marginally better communication skills, have been running the thing. Election Central Morning Roundup
• They are better suited to the decimation and enfeeblement of vulnerable civilians than to destroying promptly an enemy's military units.
• The cohesiveness and courage of the defense, despite the decimation of the command and control system, has been a revelation.
• The collapse of the potato culture by the 1840s and 1850s led to a decimation of the cottier and laborer class that had relied so heavily on female productive work. Gutenber-e Help Page