nuking

present participle of nuke
as in destroying
to bring to a complete end the physical soundness, existence, or usefulness of a pretty sizable piece of real estate would be nuked if an asteroid struck

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of nuking The moon briefly had a small chance of taking a hit from the asteroid during its close approach in 2032 – prompting one team of scientists to propose simply nuking the space rock. Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 9 Mar. 2026 But there’s a cleverness to how AdHoc’s writing team has managed to give the player a sense of control without completely nuking the story. Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 30 Oct. 2025 Johnson raised concerns that nuking the filibuster could one day empower socialists, in an appearance on C-SPAN Thursday. Steven T. Dennis, Fortune, 11 Oct. 2025 However, nuking the asteroid could potentially create problems. Toria Sheffield, PEOPLE, 6 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for nuking
Verb
  • That second blaze burned charred 23,500 acres in that community, Malibu and elsewhere, killing 12 people and destroying or damaging more than 7,500 homes and businesses.
    Sierra Van Der Brug, The Orlando Sentinel, 26 June 2026
  • These kinds of old negatives are often stored inside cans and are so fragile they can’t be unrolled without destroying them, Seales says.
    Claire Cameron, Scientific American, 26 June 2026
Verb
  • But everyday people expressed their political outrage time and again, throwing rocks at and demolishing the houses of government officials, torching the king’s ships and forts and, eventually, marching to battle.
    Robert Parkinson, The Conversation, 24 June 2026
  • During that 25-day closure, PennDOT crews will be demolishing the existing Commercial Street Bridge and sliding in the new bridge, which has been constructed alongside the Parkway East outside of the Squirrel Hill Tunnel.
    Mike Darnay, CBS News, 24 June 2026
Verb
  • The company was saving a few bucks but ruining its product.
    Rohan Goswami, semafor.com, 25 June 2026
  • Adidas’s everyday sneakers can handle 20,000 steps without ruining an outfit, perfectly balancing cool with comfy.
    Kaelin Dodge, InStyle, 22 June 2026
Verb
  • As many little heartbeats as possible, just running around, wrecking stuff in the house.
    Gina Kalsi, PEOPLE, 23 June 2026
  • What is in tandem here is the exuberantly generative possibility of life itself (SCOBY, water) alongside the very synthetic polymers that are literally wrecking life on an individual and systemic level.
    Eugenie Brinkema, ARTnews.com, 14 June 2026
Verb
  • SpaceX’s record-shattering IPO has minted thousands of new millionaires, unleashing a wave of high-end home shoppers poised to reshape Southern California’s already tight coastal housing markets.
    Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times, 29 June 2026
  • The record-shattering heat waves in Europe last week and in the western US in March are two recent examples.
    Briana Waxman, CNN Money, 29 June 2026
Verb
  • Loss of this support, which is said to cover 25% of the center’s operating costs, would have been devastating both financially and reputationally.
    Paul Sisson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 June 2026
  • These giant invasive snakes are devastating the Everglades ecosystem by eating through the native food web without any natural predators to keep them in check.
    Dac Collins, Outdoor Life, 17 June 2026
Verb
  • Video and photos shared on social media appear to show the aircraft plummeting to the ground after smashing a large hole in the 108-story CITIC Tower, located in the Chinese capital's business district.
    Alexandra Koch, FOXNews.com, 26 June 2026
  • Also in 2007, Spencer was sentenced concurrently to seven years in prison for choking a woman, slamming her head to the ground, and robbing her of her cellphone, and for smashing into a woman's car and ransacking it, prosecutors said.
    Adam Harrington, CBS News, 25 June 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Nuking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nuking. Accessed 29 Jun. 2026.

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