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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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
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
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The Pentagon has generally lumped it into the first objective of destroying Iran’s missile capability.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
28 Mar. 2026
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But there may be an answer, or at least a compromise that will satisfy those unhappy with the idea of destroying a usable building.—
Miami Herald Archives,
Miami Herald,
27 Mar. 2026
Verb
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But the grumblings about demolishing the library building have lately become a roaring debate.—
Miami Herald Archives,
Miami Herald,
27 Mar. 2026
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Israel’s defense minister said the military would accelerate demolishing homes along the southern Lebanese border and destroy all bridges over the Litani River.—
Jessie Yeung,
CNN Money,
23 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Accused of ruining baseball with their big-spending ways the past two years, the noise has only gotten louder as a labor showdown looms.—
Bill Plunkett,
Oc Register,
29 Mar. 2026
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To figure out its mechanism, Julius’s team had to somehow extract it from cells without ruining the very properties the researchers were trying to understand.—
Jacek Krywko,
Scientific American,
25 Mar. 2026
Verb
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This might drive like a dirt race, giving Reddick, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell a chance to shine as their cars are on the verge of wrecking.—
Jordan Bianchi,
New York Times,
21 Mar. 2026
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The episode about Secret Squirrel and the perils of surveillance culture feels more relevant than ever, as does the climate-change episode in which the time-traveling Jetson family sues people of the present for wrecking their future.—
Eric Vilas-Boas,
Vulture,
18 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Martha had a confidence-shattering experience with her previous boyfriend.—
Deborah Treisman,
New Yorker,
29 Mar. 2026
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Atlanta Police Department During the incident, a stray bullet struck an Atlanta Public Schools bus, shattering one of its windows.—
CBS News Atlanta Staff,
CBS News,
29 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Our team found that a hospital cyberattack cut the odds of surviving a cardiac arrest without devastating brain damage by nearly 90% at nearby hospitals, not just the one that was attacked.—
Jeffrey Tully,
Fortune,
26 Mar. 2026
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But the war now is devastating it.—
Shane Harris,
The Atlantic,
26 Mar. 2026
Verb
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One of the men is seen on surveillance video smashing the front door with a metal object and connecting the ATM to the vehicle using a metal cable.—
Lillie Davidson,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
29 Mar. 2026
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Particle accelerators like the LHC typically work by firing beams of particles at nearly the speed of light and smashing them together.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
28 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Nuking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nuking. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.
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