duodecimate

1. no pluralrareSynonym of duodecimvirate: a group of twelve.

   There was there impanelled to serve as jurors [a] duodecimate of “impartial and unwitting persons”.

   1924, The Pharmaceutical Era, LIX, page 565

   1 more example

   We affirm, that to all eternity the apostles are to be twelve, among all the redeemed, a conspicuous, glorious, unassociated duodecimate.

   1851, Matthew LaRue Perrine Thompson, The Church, Its Ministry and Worship, page 95

   Synonyms: duodecimvirate

participle past duodecimated

1. rareattested in the past participle onlyTo kill one twelfth of a group of people, especially by lot.

   The barbarians were duodecimated — i.e., one out of every twelve was beheaded.

   1974, Jean d’Ormesson, The Glory of the Empire, page 298

   2 more examples

   The French squadron…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.

   1868, Sydney Punch, VIII, page 93

   If they had duodecimated a legion…rather than…decimate them…, two [fewer] guys per unit would have had to be killed.

   2009, Tom McMorrow, Having Fun With Words of Wit and Wisdom, page 75

2. rareattested in the past participle onlyTo divide into twelfths; to divide duodecimally.

   He has duodecimated his difficulties by choosing twelve boy “heroes.”

   1899, Current Literature, XXV, page 116

   1 more example

   Already [Sir James Frazer] has epitomized, and so to speak, duodecimated, the Golden Bough, while Lady Frazer has culled a florilegium from his works.

   1928, Sir John Collings Squire, Rolfe Arnold Scott-James, The London Mercury, XVIII, page 446