How to Use decimate in a Sentence

decimate

verb
Definition of decimatenext
Synonyms for decimatenext
  • This kind of moth is responsible for decimating thousands of trees in our town.
  • Budget cuts have decimated public services in small towns.
  • Bouts of large-scale logging decimated close to a third of their forest in the 1980s.
    — Erika Page, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 July 2023
  • This will decimate the Russian military and end the war, and also solve the labor shortage here in the U.S.
    — WSJ, 16 Dec. 2022
  • But that was before Elon Musk took over the company and decimated much of its staff.
    — Marco Marcelline, PCMAG, 6 May 2023
  • Rodgers, the future Hall of Famer, has the ability to decimate the Dolphins’ pass defense.
    — Chris Perkins, Sun Sentinel, 22 Dec. 2022
  • The genista broom caterpillar had decimated a plant in record time.
    — Arkansas Online, 23 July 2023
  • Since 2021, avian flu has been decimating wild and domestic birds in several parts of the world.
    — Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Feb. 2023
  • Will the Ravens again give up big plays with a cornerback group that has already been decimated by injuries?
    — Mike Preston, Baltimore Sun, 1 Sep. 2023
  • The Sharks have been decimated at times this season at the center position.
    — Curtis Pashelka, The Mercury News, 3 Mar. 2024
  • Without it, the U.K.’s tech sector would have been decimated.
    — Russ Shaw, Fortune, 17 Mar. 2023
  • Some experts say that decimated the economy and even led to World War II.
    — Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz, 22 Mar. 2023
  • In the 1990s the welfare state continued to contract, the stock market boomed, organized labor was decimated, and the cold war came to an end.
    — Sam Needleman, The New York Review of Books, 7 Oct. 2023
  • Adams has also dealt with injuries throughout the preseason, and Fields is a guy who stepped in last year as the room was decimated by injuries.
    — Ashley Bastock, cleveland, 27 Aug. 2023
  • Protomammals were decimated by the catastrophe, but reptiles of all sorts quickly evolved to open new niches in the water, on land and in the air.
    — Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Mar. 2023
  • Javelin has helped decimate Russia’s tank fleet, responsible for many of 1,100 main battle tanks destroyed or damaged over the course of the war.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 23 Feb. 2023
  • The gardenias and banana shrub that were decimated last winter are still green.
    — Janet B. Carson, arkansasonline.com, 22 Jan. 2024
  • The Ethiopian government has been trying to defeat Tigray forces for years, using every tool of war to decimate them.
    — Lauren Jackson, New York Times, 11 Dec. 2022
  • The pun faceoffs alone would decimate the rest of humanity.
    — Gene Park, Washington Post, 17 Mar. 2023
  • Russian forces decimated the city last spring and occupied it one year ago after a siege.
    — Matthew Mpoke Bigg, BostonGlobe.com, 17 May 2023
  • Gannets were hit hard by the 2022 avian flu, which decimated domestic and wild bird populations across the globe.
    — Carlyn Kranking, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Oct. 2023
  • The recent wildfires on Maui, which decimated the town of Lahaina, caused around $5.5 billion in damage.
    — Aliza Chasan, CBS News, 12 Sep. 2023
  • Over 1,000 homes were burned down, hundreds more were looted and destroyed, and the thriving business district known as Black Wall Street was decimated.
    — Analisa Novak, CBS News, 26 Feb. 2024
  • Were groves of palm trees decimated to create systems for rolling the giant stone carvings from quarry to coastline, where most of them have sat for many hundreds of years?
    — Daniel Lewis, Smithsonian Magazine, 26 Mar. 2024
  • And with a looming shutdown, which could decimate the remaining foot traffic by the diner, Tong says there is a perfect storm ready to kill her business.
    — Reis Thebault, Washington Post, 28 Sep. 2023
  • On good desert wildflower years, these are the caterpillars that march by the thousands through the fields of blooming sand verbena, decimating acres of flowers in just a few days.
    — Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Nov. 2023
  • More than 1,000 homes were burned, hundreds more were looted and destroyed and a thriving business district known as Black Wall Street was decimated.
    — CBS News, 13 Apr. 2023
  • The worst effects would be reserved for food prices, which could rise by over 3% every year as higher temperatures decimate the world’s crops.
    — Bytristan Bove, Fortune, 31 May 2023
  • It’s already claimed the lives of at least two people and decimated cattle herds, forcing many ranchers to release their livestock to fend for themselves.
    — Katie Hill, Outdoor Life, 7 Mar. 2024
  • They were decimated on the defensive side with injuries.
    — Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 29 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'decimate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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