overkill
Americannoun
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the capacity of a nation to destroy, by nuclear weapons, more of an enemy than would be necessary for a military victory.
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an instance of such destruction.
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an excess of what is required or suitable, as because of zeal or misjudgment.
noun
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the capability to deploy more weapons, esp nuclear weapons, than is necessary to ensure military advantage
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any capacity or treatment that is greater than that required or appropriate
Etymology
Origin of overkill
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.
But I would agree with Williams that it was probably overkill.
From MarketWatch • Jan. 16, 2026
It feels a bit like overkill if you’re just a little sleepy.
From Slate • Nov. 26, 2025
And transferring that kind of wealth to a man worth nearly a half-trillion dollars already seems like overkill, though Musk insisted Wednesday that his aim isn’t about the money.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 23, 2025
It’s an overload of overkill, yet as tedious and empty as the last day of a 72-hour trip to Vegas when the novelty has worn off and you just want to go home and sleep.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 15, 2025
Defenders of the overkill hypothesis reply: you would hardly expect to find kill sites if the extermination was completed very quickly and long ago, such as within a few millennia some 40,000 years ago.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions 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.
