nuke

noun

1. (US, colloquial)A nuclear weapon.

   “"Mini-nukes" are "among the active unresolved nuclear issues in NATO at the moment," according to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff report. […] Mini-nukes, the report said, are the "new generation of tactical nuclear weapons which combine low and variable yield possibilities with enhanced radiation characteristics and which could be used with artillery and laser-guided or other 'smart' bombs."”

   “The world has witnessed the first confrontation between the ‘nukes’ and the ‘non-nukes’ [i.e., countries possessing and not possessing nuclear weapons]. Although only a political one, this confrontation at the Review Conference of the Parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which took place last May in Geneva, portends serious trouble ahead.”

   “‘This, er, initiator of polonium and lithium, would it be used in an anti-personnel bomb?’ he asked. ‘Oh yes, you could say so, boyo,’ replied the Welshman. ‘An initiator, you see, is what sets off a nuke.’”

   “For citizens of nuclear states, nukes are the metaphor for success and failure, the constraints for experimentation, the analogy for all other "problems." Nonetheless, these same citizens seem reluctant to take nukes so seriously.”

   “I can buy nukes on the black market for $40 million each.”

2. (US, broadly, colloquial)Something that destroys or negates, especially on a catastrophic scale.
3. (US, colloquial)A nuclear power station.

   “Confronted with the threat of several nukes on the island, we soon realized that the Long Island Sound is being used as a massive cooling basin for nuclear reactors.”

   “Nukes Don't Pollute”

   “He calculates that nukes might be needed to power energy-intensive “large scale co2 sequestration techniques” as well.”

   “We've analyzed employee manifests at all nukes, LNG, and refineries in the United States for Middle Eastern profile matches.”

4. (US, colloquial)A vessel such as a ship or submarine running on nuclear power.

   “A nuke [nuclear submarine] can't survive with one flooded compartment. Any compartment that floods is going to kill you. Okay? Now, that's an acceptable risk because the nuclear hull is made of better steel. If a surface ship hits a nuclear submarine, the surface ship is going to sink, which we've demonstrated again and again. [...] In a nuke you come to periscope depth once a day, every two days.”

5. (US, colloquial)A person (such as a sailor in a navy or a scientist) who works with nuclear weapons or nuclear power.

   “But nowhere in our military services is there a more highly trained, more qualified group of officers than the Navy's nuclear power officers – Navy nukes. The responsibilities the Navy's 4,300 nukes have to assume – procuring, testing, operating, and maintaining our nuclear-powered fleet – require a much deeper level of understanding than is necessary in the other services.”

6. (US, colloquial)A cautionary flag placed on a release to label it as "bad" for some reason or another (e.g., being a dupe of a previous release or containing malware).

   “A nuke based on non existent rules or made up reasons can be undone – this is called and^([sic]) un-nuke.”

7. (US, colloquial, rare)A microwave oven.

   “Just put it in the nuke for two minutes and it will be ready to eat.”

   “Three, my brothers that were taken elsewhere shall also be fed, in like manner, not from your nuke garbage but from your best food.”

   “I let my eyes wander, imagining that I was inside, wandering through, opening the fridge, checking out the nuke and macrowave^([sic]), cranking the handles to see if the water flowed, palming light switches, opening cupboards, ...”

   “To replace the entire unit would be my best advice, to repair it costs more than just money, you also have to hassle with the repair people and lose out on time not having your 'nuke'.”

   “The done bell on the nuke went off. In my book, next-day pizza is one of the best leftovers around, especially when accompanied by the lone survivor of a six-pack of Sam Adams special.”

8. (US, alt-of, alternative, colloquial)Alternative spelling of nuc (“nucleus colony of bees”).

   “As a further experiment, I placed a very weak over-wintered nuke over the queenless colony. In bee strength, this little nuke was not half as strong.”

   “Small new hives with a queen and a few worker bees, commonly called "nukes" are not suitable for pollination purposes [...]. New colonies should be developed before they are brought to the alfalfa seed field [...].”

   “The first new queen to emerge from the cell may kill the other queens before they can emerge. The producer must be present when the new queens emerge to separate them from the nuke before all of the other new queens are killed.”

9. (US, alt-of, alternative, colloquial, obsolete)Alternative form of nucha (“spinal cord; nape of the neck”).

   “The organ of amativeness is placed in the nuke of the neck as a protuberance of the cerebellum.”

   “Historically, other words have been used to refer to this place on the body: hattrel, niddick, noddle, noll, nuke, and poll; all have passed out of use.”

10. (Northern-England, US, alt-of, alternative, archaic, colloquial)Alternative form of nook (“a corner of a piece of land; an angled piece of land, especially one extending into other land”).

    “The ancient bounds of the cow paſture of Penrith, [...] and then from the ſaid Old Dyke end, alongſt Plumpton Dyke Eaſt over Petterel unto Plumpton park nuke, otherwiſe called Plumpton nuke; [...]”

    “The bounder beginneth at the east nuke of the Carter, and from thence extendeth eastward upon the height of the edge to Robscleugh Score, and from thence to Phillip's cross, so to the Spittopnuke, from thence to Greenlaw, so to the height of the Brown Hartlaw, and from thence along the high street to the nuke of the Blakelaw, and from thence to Hemmier's Well, where Ridsdale and Cookdale meet, all wᵉʰ is a bounder against Scotland.”

verb

1. (Canada, US, colloquial, transitive)To use a nuclear weapon on (a target).

   “If a nuclear war ever breaks out, military facilities are likely to be nuked first.”

   “It's Christmas at ground zero / Now the missiles are on their way / What a crazy fluke / We're gonna get nuked / On this jolly holiday”

   “Okay, listen to me: We've been nuked. The whole fucking country's been nuked. I don't know how many are dead in here, but we're alive, and so is Colonel Macklin.”

   “Nor was nuking a solution. Kargh would never forgive nuking a planet in other than defense of the Faith. While on another level, nuking might easily bring about a hatred of the Empire that would make the conversation and rule of this sector very difficult. No, nuking was another way to earn a place on the palace wall, decorating a long iron stake.”

   “Listen, I've said it once and I'll [say] it just one more time. Nuke London. This is a Presidential Decree. [...] O London is not in France. Paris is in France. Paris is the capital of France. / P I thought Paris was the capital of England. / O France. / P You mean I'm nuking the wrong place? / O Afraid. So. / P Call Charley. Tell him I revoke the order. [...] (To P) London is being nuked at this very moment.”

2. (Canada, US, colloquial, figuratively, transitive)To destroy or erase completely.

   “He had his posts nuked from the Google archives.”

   “The find is all the more remarkable, [George] Koch said, because the trees are in a tract added to the park belatedly, during President Jimmy Carter's administration. "They aren't all that far from an old clear-cut," he said. "Basically, they were almost nuked. The fact that they weren't is amazing."”

   “Cyborg romance is the flip side of the robot uprising. Our mechanical creations love us instead of nuking us from orbit. The fantasy here isn't about making it with a hot fembot. It's about wanting approval from our children, wanting them to grow up without obliterating us.”

   “Yes, the Democratic Party's sharp leftward pivot might have nuked the Never Trump movement all on its own, because it is leaving no sane alternatives to [Donald] Trump.”

3. (Internet, US, broadly, colloquial, transitive)To carry out a denial-of-service attack against (an IRC user).
4. (Internet, US, colloquial, transitive)To maliciously destroy an online community or chat server (especially on Discord) by mass-deleting channels, roles, and messages, or by mass-banning members, often using an automated script or bot.

   “The Chaos Gang managed to get administrator permissions and nuke the entire server in seconds.”

5. (Canada, US, colloquial, transitive)To expose to some form of radiation.
6. (Canada, US, colloquial, transitive)To cook in a microwave oven.

   “I’ll nuke some pizza for dinner.”

   “If you've picked up a secondhand one, you should invest $4.00 for a microwave leak tester. The one I have has a little smiley face and a little frowning face. If the smiley face lights up when you pass it in front of the turned-on microwave, then you can nuke with impunity.”

   “Dad had just slapped dinner on the table—a frozen lasagna nuked in the microwave, salad from a bag and presliced garlic bread, also nuked.”

7. (US, colloquial, transitive)To overanalyze or despair unduly over something.