noun
the initial use of nuclear weapons in a conflict, in which the attacker tries to destroy the adversary's strategic nuclear forces.
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Origin of first strike
First recorded in 1960–65
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022
Words related to first strike
How to use first strike in a sentence
Fluoride first entered an American water supply through a rather inelegant technocratic scheme.
In the first episode, an officer is shown video of himself shooting and killing a man.
But since those rosy scenarios were first floated, the California political scene has grown more crowded.
The influential al Qaeda propagandist, who was born in New Mexico, died in a U.S. drone strike later that year.
Eric Garcetti succeeded Villaraigosa and has received high marks in his first year and a half on the job.
This is the first and principal point at which we can stanch the wastage of teaching energy that now goes on.
He was converted and baptized, and was the first Hebrew instructor at Harvard college.
And I have not had the first morsel of food prepared from this grain offered me since I reached the shores of Europe.
Now first we shall want our pupil to understand, speak, read and write the mother tongue well.
In treble, second and fourth, the first change is a dodge behind; and the second time the treble leads, there's a double Bob.
British Dictionary definitions for first strike
adjective
(of a nuclear missile) intended for use in an opening attack calculated to destroy the enemy's nuclear weapons
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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