Word - 4

DECIMATE \DESS-uh-mayt\ verb

1 : to take or destroy the tenth part of
*2 : to cause great destruction or harm to

Example sentence:
Farmers struggled to feed their families after their crops were decimated by blight.

Did you know?

The connection between "decimate" and the number ten harks back to a brutal practice of the army of ancient Rome. A unit that was guilty of a severe crime (such as mutiny) was punished by selecting and executing one-tenth of its soldiers, thereby scaring the remaining nine-tenths into obedience. It's no surprise that the word for this practice came from Latin "decem," meaning "ten." From this root we also get our word "decimal" and the name of the month of December, originally the tenth month of the calendar before the second king of Rome decided to add January and February. In its extended uses "decimate" strayed from its "tenth" meaning and nowadays refers to the act of destroying or hurting something in great numbers.

Word - 3

JOG TROT\JOG-TROT\ noun

1 : a horse's slow measured trot
*2 : a routine habit or course of action

Example sentence:
The weekly Friday-night dances provided the townsfolk with a few hours of respite from the jog trot of life.

Did you know?

The jog trot is a kind of careful, deliberate trot that is sometimes required at horse shows, among other things. "Jog" is thought to have come from an alteration of "shog," a verb meaning "to shake" or "to jolt" and used primarily in dialect. "Trot" has been part of English since the 14th century. The phrase "jog trot," which first appeared in print in 1796, developed a figurative sense as well; it can refer to a steady and usually monotonous routine, similar to the slow, regular pace of a horse at a jog trot. There is a suggestion with the generalized sense that the action is uniform and unhurried, and perhaps even a little dull.