nuke
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /njuːk/
ipa: /n(j)uk/
rhymes: -uːk
homophone: neuk
homophone: nuc
homophone: (foot-goose merger) nook
Forms: form: nukes
Etymology: Clipping of nuclear weapon. The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: "Mini-nukes" are "among the active unresolved nuclear issues in NATO at the moment," according to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff report. […] Mini-nukes, the report said, are the "new generation of tactical nuclear weapons which combine low and variable yield possibilities with enhanced radiation characteristics and which could be used with artillery and laser-guided or other 'smart' bombs."
ref: 1974 January, Lloyd Norman, “The Reluctant Dragon: NATO’s Fears and the Need for New Nuclear Weapons”, in L. James Binder, editor, Army, volume 24, number 1, Washington, D.C.: Association of the United States Army, →OCLC, page 16:
text: The world has witnessed the first confrontation between the ‘nukes’ and the ‘non-nukes’ [i.e., countries possessing and not possessing nuclear weapons]. Although only a political one, this confrontation at the Review Conference of the Parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which took place last May in Geneva, portends serious trouble ahead.
ref: [1975 September, William Epstein, “Failure at the NPT Review Conference”, in Samuel H. Day, Jr., editor, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: A Magazine of Science and Public Affairs, volume XXXI, number 7, Chicago, Ill.: Educational Foundation for Nuclear Scence, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 46, column 2:
text: ‘This, er, initiator of polonium and lithium, would it be used in an anti-personnel bomb?’ he asked. ‘Oh yes, you could say so, boyo,’ replied the Welshman. ‘An initiator, you see, is what sets off a nuke.’
ref: 1984, Frederick Forsyth, The Fourth Protocol, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 301:
text: For citizens of nuclear states, nukes are the metaphor for success and failure, the constraints for experimentation, the analogy for all other "problems." Nonetheless, these same citizens seem reluctant to take nukes so seriously.
ref: 1992, William Chaloupka, “Knowing Nukes”, in Knowing Nukes: The Politics and Culture of the Atom, Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minneapolis Press, →ISBN, page 1:
text: I can buy nukes on the black market for $40 million each.
ref: 2001, Skip Woods, Swordfish, spoken by Gabriel Shear (John Travolta):
text: That was the apparent strategy with the hand-carried nukes, Bentley said — not to nuke Russians directly but rather nuke big holes in the Alps, so that all the resultant ash would fill up the valleys and prevent Soviet tanks and trucks from being able to pass, he said.
ref: 2019 January 7, Paul Srubas, “His job was to place atomic bombs. Place them, not drop them. Set the timer. Run like hell.”, in Green Bay Press-Gazette:
glosses: A nuclear weapon.
glosses: Something that destroys or negates, especially on a catastrophic scale.
examples: text: Confronted with the threat of several nukes on the island, we soon realized that the Long Island Sound is being used as a massive cooling basin for nuclear reactors.
ref: 1979, Anna Gyorgy et al., “Atomic Power, Nuclear Plants”, in No Nukes: Everyone’s Guide to Nuclear Power (Black Rose Books; no. I.49), Montreal, Que.: Black Rose Books, →ISBN, page 406:
text: Nukes Don't Pollute
ref: 2002, Home Power - Issues 86-91, page 121:
text: He calculates that nukes might be needed to power energy-intensive “large scale co2 sequestration techniques” as well.
ref: 2010, Andrew Nikiforuk, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, page 155:
text: We've analyzed employee manifests at all nukes, LNG, and refineries in the United States for Middle Eastern profile matches.
ref: 2010, Ben Coes, Power Down:
glosses: A nuclear power station.
examples: text: A nuke [nuclear submarine] can't survive with one flooded compartment. Any compartment that floods is going to kill you. Okay? Now, that's an acceptable risk because the nuclear hull is made of better steel. If a surface ship hits a nuclear submarine, the surface ship is going to sink, which we've demonstrated again and again. [...] In a nuke you come to periscope depth once a day, every two days.
ref: 2006, Dan Gillcrist, “Apples and Oranges”, in Power Shift: The Transition to Nuclear Power in the U.S. Submarine Force as Told by Those Who Did It, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 145:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A vessel such as a ship or submarine running on nuclear power.
examples: text: But nowhere in our military services is there a more highly trained, more qualified group of officers than the Navy's nuclear power officers – Navy nukes. The responsibilities the Navy's 4,300 nukes have to assume – procuring, testing, operating, and maintaining our nuclear-powered fleet – require a much deeper level of understanding than is necessary in the other services.
ref: 1991 summer, Grady Wells, “Getting Under Way with Navy Nukes”, in Tyrone D. Taborn, editor, US Black Engineer, volume 15, number 3, Baltimore, Md.: Career Communications Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 29:
glosses: A person (such as a sailor in a navy or a scientist) who works with nuclear weapons or nuclear power.
examples: text: A nuke based on non existent rules or made up reasons can be undone – this is called and^([sic]) un-nuke.
ref: 2009 June 12, TEAM FILEnetworks, “Scene NukeWars : Funniest nuke reasons ever”, in FILEnetworks Blog, archived from the original on 23 Mar 2021:
glosses: A cautionary flag placed on a release to label it as "bad" for some reason or another (e.g., being a dupe of a previous release or containing malware).
examples: text: Just put it in the nuke for two minutes and it will be ready to eat.
text: Three, my brothers that were taken elsewhere shall also be fed, in like manner, not from your nuke garbage but from your best food.
ref: 1986, Christine Brooke-Rose, Xorandor, page 113:
text: I let my eyes wander, imagining that I was inside, wandering through, opening the fridge, checking out the nuke and macrowave^([sic]), cranking the handles to see if the water flowed, palming light switches, opening cupboards, ...
ref: 1997, Joe Clifford Faust, Handling it: how I got rich and famous, made media stars out of common street scum and almost got the girl, →ISBN:
text: To replace the entire unit would be my best advice, to repair it costs more than just money, you also have to hassle with the repair people and lose out on time not having your 'nuke'.
ref: 2009, Nate Stansfield, SOLVED: Light comes on and turntable spins. It sounds like it is working byt no heat.:
text: The done bell on the nuke went off. In my book, next-day pizza is one of the best leftovers around, especially when accompanied by the lone survivor of a six-pack of Sam Adams special.
ref: 2010, M. Scott Kelley, Rose City Demise, →ISBN, page 58:
glosses: A microwave oven.
Derived terms: antinuke
backpack nuke
McNuke
micronuke
nucular
nukage
nuke family
nuke it from orbit
nukelike
nuke plant
nuker
nukespeak
nuke the fridge
nukewar
suitcase nuke
tacnuke
tac nuke
tac-nuke
truth nuke
trvke