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 To save the planet, a crew is sent on a mission to give the sun back its shine… by nuking the crap out of it. Grace Dean, Space.com, 1 Sep. 2026 Korea’s unfunny dictator responded by nuking the studio’s tech apparatus, thus disclosing its financial secrets. Peter Bart, Deadline, 30 July 2026 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
  • Fox attorneys also accused executives at both Dominion and Smartmatic of destroying evidence in their respective cases, and sought sanctions.
    Maddy Lauria, NPR, 20 Sep. 2026
  • Because both sides can persistently generate concentrated effects without concentrating forces, destroying the enemy’s ability to keep fighting becomes harder.
    NADIA SCHADLOW, Foreign Affairs, 18 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • On Thursday, the judge ordered the Kennedy Center to provide 30 days' notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolishing it.
    Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 20 Sep. 2026
  • On Thursday, the judge ordered the Kennedy Center to provide 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolishing it.
    Gary Fields, Los Angeles Times, 19 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • And Hollywood really should stop ruining good shows trying to chase that approval.
    Dan Zaksheske OutKick, FOXNews.com, 18 Sep. 2026
  • The near-miss is one of the more potent and consequential instances of a hallucinating AI ruining the reliability of a professional report.
    Kyle Orland, ArsTechnica, 18 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • Here’s how the shift happened, what the ingredient actually does below the neck and how to fold it into a routine without wrecking your skin barrier.
    Hanna Wickes, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 15 Sep. 2026
  • The general public learned of the demolition plan only when the wrecking equipment began work nearly three months later.
    Dan Diamond, Washington Post, 9 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • Last week a number of concerned mathematicians, many of them at the top of their subject, launched the Association for Human Mathematics (AHM)—an effort that was underway even before the earth-shattering Navier-Stokes news.
    Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 14 Sep. 2026
  • Maya’s fear of commitment mirrors the film’s fear of showing us anything truly ugly or grappling with the idea that our heroine is one of many, many people who lost someone during a society-shattering number of years.
    Jourdain Searles, HollywoodReporter, 14 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • Military force has imposed enormous costs on both Hamas and Iran, devastating their military facilities and killing their commanders.
    NADIA SCHADLOW, Foreign Affairs, 18 Sep. 2026
  • The country is also recovering from devastating back-to-back earthquakes in June that have so far killed over 6,000 people.
    Syra Ortiz Blanes, Miami Herald, 5 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • The helicopter crashed in a driveway between two warehouses, smashing into a pair of truck cargo containers while the news crew tried grabbing video footage of a serious collision involving a Metro bus that also left two people dead.
    Carlos De Loera, Los Angeles Times, 18 Sep. 2026
  • In the rare instances people have spotted, these birds avoid getting stung by smashing the wasps on the ground to break the stingers before finishing their meal.
    Sean Donnelly, USA Today, 17 Sep. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Nuking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nuking. Accessed 23 Sep. 2026.

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