Decimated when you mean destroy

[ThomasRichard]

Decimated: one in ten will be cut down/killed/destroyed.

It is not synonymous with 'destroy'. Sentences like, 'The nuclear blast decimated the city of Hiroshima' make my teeth grind.

Its meaning has changed. It means to destroy or kill a large part of something, so the nuclear blast example could be correct.

Literal, historical meanings are often lost over time.

It sounds awful though. I've only recently started to hear it in the 'destroy' sense.

Agree with Shatner. The meaning you give is given as historical by the Oxford Dictionary. The meanings of words do change over time. And I don't like the evolution of some words either!