Nuke

/njuːk/ · noun

Meaning

A nuclear weapon..

Definitions by Sense

1. A nuclear weapon.
2. (by extension) Something that destroys or negates, especially on a catastrophic scale.
3. A nuclear power station.
4. (nautical) A vessel such as a ship or submarine running on nuclear power.
5. A person (such as a sailor in a navy or a scientist) who works with nuclear weapons or nuclear power.
6. (warez) 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).
7. (rare) A microwave oven.
8. (transitive, chiefly Canada, US, colloquial) To use a nuclear weapon on (a target).

Example Sentences

"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."

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.

‘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.’

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.

I can buy nukes on the black market for $40 million each.

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.

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.

Nukes Don't Pollute

Synonyms for nuke

Antonyms for nuke

Related Words

Word Forms

• nukes
• nuking
• nuked

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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