Decimate
dec·i·mate/ˈdesəˌmāt/
To kill one man chosen by lot out of every ten in a legion or other military group; to reduce anything by one in ten, or ten percent.
This word is annoyingly misapplied - people use the word as a synonymn of "destroy" or "annihilate", whereas the true meaning is to destroy just 10 percent of something (hence the 'dec' which always means ten -- except December, which should have been the tenth month instead of October, which should have been the eight month, but I digress).
The Ancient Romans used decimation to punish their soldiers if they misbehaved - by killing one random in ten. That's fairly strict. It is, however, the only real application of the word. It's also another, less nice word for tithe. So if you give ten percent of their income to your church, you could say you decimate your income. Although, that's a bit weird to say. People might think you mean you're horrible at saving.
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