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To decimate something is to destroy a large part of it — a town, an army, a forest, a budget, even a sports team. News writers love this word: a storm “decimates” a coast; cuts “decimate” a hospital’s staff. It sounds serious and a little formal, but you will hear it a lot.
To decimate somethingdecimate某樣東西 is to destroy a large part of it就是摧毀它的一大部分 a town, an army, a forest, a budget, even a sports team一座城鎮、一支軍隊、一片森林、一筆預算，甚至一支運動隊伍 News writers love this word新聞寫手很愛用這個字 a storm “decimates” a coast暴風雨會「decimate」一片海岸 cuts “decimate” a hospital's staff裁員會「decimate」醫院的人力 It sounds serious and a little formal聽起來很嚴肅、有點正式 but you will hear it a lot但你會很常聽到
Though actually, the old Roman meaning was much narrower: an officer would punish a unit by killing one man in every ten. A few careful speakers still say it should only mean “destroy one tenth”, but almost nobody talks that way now. If you say a fire decimated a street, listeners will picture most of it gone, not exactly ten percent.
Though actually不過其實 the old Roman meaning was much narrower古羅馬的原意窄得多 an officer would punish a unit一名軍官會處罰一支部隊 by killing one man in every ten每十人殺一人 A few careful speakers少數講究的人 still say it should only mean “destroy one tenth”還是說它應該只能指「毀掉十分之一」 but almost nobody talks that way now但現在幾乎沒有人這樣用了 If you say a fire decimated a street如果你說一場大火decimated了一條街 listeners will picture most of it gone聽的人會想像大部分都毀了 not exactly ten percent而不是剛好十分之一
組成Borrowed from Latin decimatus, from the verb decimō, “to kill one tenth” or “to tithe” (take a tenth as tax). From decimus, “tenth”. First used in English in the late 1500s.
同家族的字
- decimationthe noun: the act, or the result, of destroying a large part
- decimalboth go back to Latin for “ten” / “tenth”
原始詞典資料11 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
decimateverb/ˈdɛsɪmeɪt/
- 1
archaicTo 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.
- Said to have been martyred as a Christian legionary commander of late Roman times for having refused an imperial order to kill one in ten (that is, decimate in the Roman meaning of the word) of the soldiers of another legion which had gone into revolt...
- 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...
- 3
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.
- Um, some sort of power overload. I'm afraid it decimated your breakfast.
- 4
obsoleteTo 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.
- In addition, an ordinance was published that “all who had ever borne arms for the king, or declared themselves to be of the royal party, should be decimated, that is, pay a tenth part of all the estate which they had left, to support the charge which the commonwealth was put to...
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obsoleterareTo 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 clergie; […]
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obsoleteTo 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.
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To reduce to one-tenth: to destroy or remove nine-tenths of (something).
- In this dramatic picture, the nation is literally decimated, and even the tenth which remains is subjected to a further destruction.
- African slaves were needed to replace Native American populations that had been decimated (literally reduced to one-tenth their size) by European conquest.
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computer-graphicscomputingengineeringTo replace (a high-resolution model) with another of lower but acceptable quality. (Usually algorithmically)
- A decimate tool allows us to obtain a more coarse-grained view of the data over the full n-dimensional space.
- However, many times it is more practical to decimate existing high-res models because of time, money or manpower issues.
decimatenoun/ˈdɛsɪmeɪt/
- 1
obsoleteA tithe or other 10% tax or payment.
- 2
obsoleteA tenth of something.
- 3
obsoleteA set of ten items.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。