Meaning & use
nuke
Last updated
informally, to destroy something completely and suddenly, especially with a nuclear weapon; also used casually to mean heating food quickly in a microwave.
See it in a sentence
The general warned that a single miscalculation could nuke the fragile ceasefire.
He nuked his leftover pizza for ninety seconds before eating it at his desk.
A note on using this word
Nuke is informal in both senses -- the microwave meaning in particular is casual slang and shouldn't be used in formal writing.
Words with a similar meaning
destroyobliterate
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