nuke
Americannoun
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nukes
plural
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a nuclear or thermonuclear weapon.
-
a nuclear power plant or nuclear reactor.
-
nuclear energy.
to convert from coal to nuke.
adjective
verb (used with object)
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nukes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
nuked,
past participle, past
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nuking
present participle
-
to attack, defeat, or destroy with or as if with nuclear weapons.
-
Slang. to cook or bake in a microwave oven.
verb
noun
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a nuclear bomb
-
a military strike with nuclear weapons
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nuclear power
-
a nuclear power plant
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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nukesimple
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nukessimple
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have nukedperfect
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has nukedperfect
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am nukingprogressive
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are nukingprogressive
-
is nukingprogressive
-
have been nukingperfect progressive
-
has been nukingperfect progressive
Past
-
nukedsimple
-
had nukedperfect
-
was nukingprogressive
-
were nukingprogressive
-
had been nukingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of nuke
First recorded in 1945–50; by shortening and respelling
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“Just imagine having to reason about a nuke that could also solve cancer.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
Anything short of that is merely kicking the nuke down the road.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
You may have said things you regret, and rather than look through your posts with a fine-toothed comb, you nuke everything in the name of reputation preservation.
From Slate ● May 7, 2024
By then the boys are ready to nuke the deal.
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2023
We’ll wait a few years and then we’ll— ANGELA: I have to nuke this phone.
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
But honestly, the problem isn’t that the AI is in charge of the nukes, right?
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
“There’s I believe a growing appreciation that AIs are the new nukes, you have to have them.”
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
In case of a Soviet attack, nukes dispersed in thousands of miles of cut-and-cover tunnels could be launched within 20 minutes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2026
No U.S. surface vessel has carried nukes since the end of the Cold War.
From Slate ● Dec. 23, 2025
“They’re us. If we’d had nukes instead of a few lumps of coal,” he answers.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
This command to wipe out the files as fast as possible nuked “Toy Story 2” in the time it takes to play “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
“I thought we got nuked or something,” said Rogers, 34.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2025
Two-up on the 18th tee, he took out a three-wood and "nuked it" according to Mickelson’s caddie, Jim 'Bones' Mackay.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2024
“It’s really ironic that this piece probably got more attention than anything we normally published,” Lopez added, “even after they nuked the website.”
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 4, 2024
It was nuked by the Ebola Reston virus.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
“But I would not subscribe to the idea of nuking the Fed.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
His flawed hyperloop plan, for example, or nuking the Martian poles to create an atmosphere, or basically anything he’s promised about Twitter.
From Scientific American ● May 15, 2023
Players can freely control Zack in 3-D space, swinging his giant sword at a monster and dodging its attacks in between nuking it with magic spells.
From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2022
Scrambling an egg is — apart from boiling water or nuking a burrito — perhaps the easiest thing a cook can do.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 30, 2021
I was still fuzzy on why nuking grapes could cause a plasma ball.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
