nuke
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /njuːk/
ipa: /n(j)uk/
rhymes: -uːk
homophone: neuk
homophone: nuc
homophone: (foot-goose merger) nook
Forms: form: nukes
form: nuking
form: nuked
form: nuked
Etymology: Clipping of nuclear weapon. The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: If a nuclear war ever breaks out, military facilities are likely to be nuked first.
text: It's Christmas at ground zero / Now the missiles are on their way / What a crazy fluke / We're gonna get nuked / On this jolly holiday
ref: 1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!:
text: Okay, listen to me: We've been nuked. The whole fucking country's been nuked. I don't know how many are dead in here, but we're alive, and so is Colonel Macklin.
ref: 1987, Robert R[ick] McCammon, chapter 15, in Swan Song (Pocket Books; 62413.X), New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN:
text: Nor was nuking a solution. Kargh would never forgive nuking a planet in other than defense of the Faith. While on another level, nuking might easily bring about a hatred of the Empire that would make the conversation and rule of this sector very difficult. No, nuking was another way to earn a place on the palace wall, decorating a long iron stake.
ref: 2004 May, John Dalmas, chapter 43, in The Regiment: A Trilogy (Baen Books Megabook), New York, N.Y.: Baen Publishing Enterprises, →ISBN:
text: Listen, I've said it once and I'll [say] it just one more time. Nuke London. This is a Presidential Decree. [...] O London is not in France. Paris is in France. Paris is the capital of France. / P I thought Paris was the capital of England. / O France. / P You mean I'm nuking the wrong place? / O Afraid. So. / P Call Charley. Tell him I revoke the order. [...] (To P) London is being nuked at this very moment.
ref: 2017 October 27, Antonia Fraser, Harold Pinter, “The US president nukes the world: read Harold Pinter’s newly discovered play”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Jun 2019:
text: Eventually, Kylie joins forces with Garrison-Trump, who is attracted to the concept of annihilating a perceived enemy, and nukes the city of Toronto into dust.
ref: 2017 November 30, Dani Di Placido, “‘South Park’ Review: History Repeats Itself in ‘Super Hard PCness’”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Nov 2017:
glosses: To use a nuclear weapon on (a target).
examples: text: He had his posts nuked from the Google archives.
text: The find is all the more remarkable, [George] Koch said, because the trees are in a tract added to the park belatedly, during President Jimmy Carter's administration. "They aren't all that far from an old clear-cut," he said. "Basically, they were almost nuked. The fact that they weren't is amazing."
ref: 2006 September 7, Glen Martin, “Eureka! New tallest living Thing discovered / THE CHAMPION: At 378.1 feet, Hyperion in Redwood National Park on North Coast towers 8 feet above Stratosphere Giant”, in San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, Calif.: Hearst Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2019:
text: Cyborg romance is the flip side of the robot uprising. Our mechanical creations love us instead of nuking us from orbit. The fantasy here isn't about making it with a hot fembot. It's about wanting approval from our children, wanting them to grow up without obliterating us.
ref: 2010 September 28, Annalee Newitz, “Why do We Keep Falling in Love with Cyborgs?”, in io9, archived from the original on 16 Jun 2019:
text: Conservative Canadian commentator Lauren Southern apparently has few fond memories of her time in Melbourne, cheekily suggesting the city "should be nuked". [...] "You know that old tale in the bible where Abraham is talking to god about Sodom and Gomorrah. He's like begging with god and says 'god, if I can find ten good people in Sodom and Gomorrah, please, do not nuke Melbourne.' We did find a few hundred good ones there – there is a silent majority I believe in Melbourne so we can't nuke it yet guys I'm sorry."
ref: 2018 August 3, Tom Crystal, “Lauren Southern says ‘Melbourne should be nuked’”, in The Australian, Surry Hills, N.S.W.: News Corp Australia, →ISSN, →OCLC:
text: Yes, the Democratic Party's sharp leftward pivot might have nuked the Never Trump movement all on its own, because it is leaving no sane alternatives to [Donald] Trump.
ref: 2019 March 25, Tiana Lowe, “How the Russia #Resistance nuked the Never Trump movement”, in Washington Examiner, Washington, D.C.: MediaDC, Clarity Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 Mar 2019:
synonyms: word: annihilate
word: devastate
word: obliterate
word: destroy
word: annihilate
word: aerosolize
word: atomize
word: benothing
word: bewreck
word: blot out
word: blotto
word: dash
word: decompose
word: demolish
word: desolate
word: devastate
word: diffuse
word: disintegrate
word: disperse
word: dissolve
word: eliminate
word: eradicate
word: erase
word: exterminate
word: extinguish
word: extirpate
word: fuck
word: harry
word: jazz
word: lay waste
word: level
word: liquidate
word: nuke
word: obliterate
word: pull down
word: pulverize
word: race
word: raze
word: ravage
word: remove
word: ruin
word: stamp out
word: total
word: unbreed
word: unexist
word: unmake
word: uproot
word: waste
word: wipe out
word: wipe off
word: wreck
glosses: To destroy or erase completely.
examples: text: The command and control servers used by the Mydoom variant, responsible for the recent denial of service attacks against Korean and US government websites, receive instructions from a master server located in the UK. [...] Apparently, the decision of whoever was responsible to damage the infected systems after July 10 pointed [Roger] Thompson in this direction. "Why bother nuking 60k computers after doing all the work of assembling them? Nuking them only helps the Good Guys, because the victims are forced to re-build, and therefore clean, their computers. [..."]
ref: 2009 July 14, Lucian Constantin, “Master Control Server for Mydoom DDoS Botnet Tracked to UK: Security Experts Stress that North Korea’s Involvement in the Attacks is Unlikely”, in Softpedia News, archived from the original on 09 May 2016:
glosses: To carry out a denial-of-service attack against (an IRC user).
glosses: To expose to some form of radiation.
examples: text: I’ll nuke some pizza for dinner.
text: If you've picked up a secondhand one, you should invest $4.00 for a microwave leak tester. The one I have has a little smiley face and a little frowning face. If the smiley face lights up when you pass it in front of the turned-on microwave, then you can nuke with impunity.
ref: 1992, Lora Brody, “Welcome to Your Kitchen”, in The Kitchen Survival Guide: A Hand-holding Kitchen Primer with 130 Recipes to Get You Started, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, page 15:
text: Dad had just slapped dinner on the table—a frozen lasagna nuked in the microwave, salad from a bag and presliced garlic bread, also nuked.
ref: 2012, Janice Kay Johnson, chapter 1, in No Matter What (Harlequin Super Romance; 1807), Don Mills, Ont.,: Harlequin, →ISBN:
glosses: To cook in a microwave oven.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To overanalyze or despair unduly over something.
Derived terms: word: antinuker
word: denuke
word: nukable
word: nukeable
word: nuke and pave
word: nuked
word: nuke it from orbit
word: nuke it out
word: nuker
word: unnuke