decimate

[Jonathan Lighter]

Now it's moved all the way to "annihilate; wipe out":

2008 Herman J. Viola _Warriors in Uniform_ (Washington, D.C.: National
Geographic) 52: The decimation at the Little Big Horn could have been
averted had Custer heeded the advice of his Crow scouts.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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