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.
Come the next crisis, such a large oil stockpile might even look like overkill.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
“Would I consider it overkill? It’s a crazy game,” said outfielder Corbin Carroll of the Arizona Diamondbacks, the team that swept the Dodgers over the weekend at Dodger Stadium.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
Expensive GPU-filled servers were overkill, and data-center customers mostly bought CPU servers to run websites, databases, applications, and other traditional workloads.
From Barron's ● May 8, 2026
Still, the assembled armada seems overkill for that goal.
From Slate ● Feb. 19, 2026
Three years later, in 1967, the picture was augmented with overkill.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
