How to Use decimate in a Sentence

decimate

verb

• This kind of moth is responsible for decimating thousands of trees in our town.
• Budget cuts have decimated public services in small towns.
• No virus cases have been reported in Libya, where the health care system has been decimated by years of conflict.
  — Nasser Karimi, Anchorage Daily News, 18 Mar. 2020
• Not just because of the razor-thin margins restaurants run on that can be decimated with a day or a week (let alone weeks or months) of no or limited business.
  — Dana McMahan, The Courier-Journal, 30 Mar. 2020
• But with its leadership decimated and its fighters still reeling, Iran’s first line of defense has been severely weakened.
  — Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 11 Dec. 2024
• Medical facilities in Idlib have been decimated in targeted airstrikes over the years.
  — CNN, 26 Mar. 2020
• 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
• As the sanctions decimate oligarchs’ wealth, could that prompt them to abandon Putin or change the course of the war?
  — Stanislav Markus, The Conversation, 4 Mar. 2022
• But that duo found a way (ways?) to decimate the Niners last Sunday.
  — Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 25 Oct. 2024
• Farm Act changes, Wilson claimed, would decimate the Glades.
  — Hannah Morse, ProPublica, 4 Feb. 2022
• The spread of an avian flu virus has decimated flocks of birds (and killed barn cats and other mammals).
  — Arthur Allen, CBS News, 29 May 2024
• Not only did the song decimate the Billboard charts and go six-times platinum.
  — cleveland, 12 Aug. 2020
• Perfect can be the enemy of the good, and good repeated over time is enough to decimate the virus.
  — Andy Larsen, The Salt Lake Tribune, 9 Aug. 2020
• This same colony of birds was decimated the previous year due to avian flu.
  — Cecilia Rodriguez, Forbes, 23 Sep. 2024
• His plan was to smuggle the trunks to northern cities to infect people and decimate Union forces.
  — TIME, 4 May 2024
• The Niners built a stars-and-scrubs roster and were decimated by bad injuries to those stars.
  — Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 6 Dec. 2024
• 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
• These measures could decimate the small and medium-sized businesses that create 65% of on-the-books jobs in the country.
  — Axel Kaiser, WSJ, 21 Dec. 2021
• Only option is a trade that could decimate the Heat’s younger players.
  — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 11 July 2022
• That, in turn, could decimate backyard gardens and crop yields.
  — Jen Rose Smith, CNN, 7 May 2021
• 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
• By June, word was traveling in rural parts of the state that the bill, known as cap and trade, would decimate the timber industry.
  — Britta Lokting, The New Republic, 23 Aug. 2022
• Resolve not to hide it anymore, and decimate the useless shame holding you back.
  — Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic, 12 Nov. 2021
• Napster was the scourge of the music industry in the ‘00s, when its peer-to-peer file-sharing software helped decimate record sales.
  — Mark Sutherland, Variety, 30 June 2022
• This fungus can quickly sweep through a vineyard to decimate a crop.
  — Elin McCoy, Fortune Europe, 11 May 2024
• The redistricting process ahead of the 2022 elections could decimate the ranks of New York Republicans in the House.
  — Kerry Picket, Washington Examiner, 22 Feb. 2021
• Most of those who died were from Milwaukee; the tragedy decimated the Irish community in the Third Ward.
  — Caitlin Looby, Journal Sentinel, 2 May 2024
• Despite Hill's standout efforts, the Saints have struggled throughout the season, dropping seven straight after a promising 2-0 start, with injuries continuing to decimate their offensive depth.
  — Daniel R. Depetris, Newsweek, 6 Dec. 2024

Last Updated: 7 Jan 2025