3 ms·

> excoriated look at that- with so many wonderful words to chose from, why do people fall back on 'decimated' ?

• pessimizer 4y ago
  To excoriate means to condemn. to decimate means to heavily damage. They are not synonyms.
  • danielheath 4y ago
    The Roman punishment of “decimation” was to make each ten-man team in an army murder one of their number (the whole team being killed if they refused). Practically “Saw”, in real life.
  • smegsicle 4y ago
    crap i thought it meant 'skin alive'
    • hnick 4y ago
      That would be flaying. But in a medical context I think excoriating is skin removal... it's just not being used literally here.
    • ShroudedNight 4y ago
      It apparently does have continued use as an approximate synonym to chafe or flay when used in the appropriate context: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/excoriate https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/excoriate https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/excoriate https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/excoria...