Citations:duodecimated
Appearance
English citations of duodecimated
adjectival uses
[edit]- 1838, John Phillips, “Portable Trigonometer” in Annual Report of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, volumes 6–7, page 120
- It is capacitated to rule parallel lines of any length, with a regularity and proximity surpassing in these respects, the instruments it is intended to supersede; for this purpose, it has a vernier adapted to the decimated, or the duodecimated division of the unit of length.
perfect participial uses
[edit]- 1868, Sydney Punch, volume 8, page 93
- The French squadron (consisting of two Russian vessels and a Dutch jolly-boat) opened fire at a distance far beyond the range of our rifles, and the carnage in our ranks was fearful. We were being gradually duodecimated when a happy thought struck me. I offered my services as a torpedo.
- 1899, Current Literature (Current Literature Pub. Co.), volume 25, page 116
- He has duodecimated his difficulties by choosing twelve boy “heroes,” all very hard […]
- 1928, Sir John Collings Squire and Rolfe Arnold Scott-James, The London Mercury (Field Press Ltd), volume 18, page 446
- Already he has epitomized, and so to speak, duodecimated, the Golden Bough, while Lady Frazer has culled a florilegium from his works for the benefit of those who revel in the graces of a pure and lofty style.
- 1966, Philip Elliot Slater, Microcosm: Structural, Psychological, and Religious Evolution in Groups (Wiley), page 73
- First they think of each taking away what amounts to the role he has achieved in the group, but this seems not to suffice, and once again a fantasy of cannibalistic incorporation appears, this time in the form of the duodecimated coat.
- 1974, Jean d’Ormesson, The Glory of the Empire: A Novel, a History (Knopf, Random House; →ISBN, 9780394481210), page 298
- The barbarians were duodecimated — i.e., one out of every twelve was beheaded.
- 2009, Tom McMorrow, Having Fun With Words of Wit and Wisdom: In 3,401 Quotations from Writers Across the Ages: From the Prophets in the Bible to Barack Obama, page 75
- And on a personal note for ancient Romans, if they had duodecimated a legion as punishment for rampant murder and rape rather than to decimate them (q.v.), two less guys per unit would have had to be killed.