Nuked

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The action of utterly demolishing an entity through great force is observed
2. Affected by the impact of a nuclear blast that causes total devastation ; overwhelmed or obliterated by an intense effort or force
3. Exposed to a nuclear explosion resulting in complete destruction ; forcibly removed or ruined through strong and decisive actions

Etymology: "Nuked" is the past tense and past participle of "nuke," a verb built from a clipping of "nuclear weapon." The noun came first: "nuclear" was cut down to "nuke" in the decades after the atomic bombings of 1945, and the verb followed, so to nuke something originally meant to attack it with a nuclear weapon. The clipped form is a common American pattern, the same kind of shortening that gave us "app" and "perk." The sense has since broadened well beyond warfare. Someone who nukes a batch of leftovers in the microwave is using the word in a deliberately cheerful, low-stakes way, and the figurative use, where a team or a campaign is wiped out by an overwhelming force, borrows the same sense of total destruction. Some dictionaries also list a separate "nuke" linked to the Latin "nucleus," meaning kernel or core, but the modern verb descends from the weapons clipping.

Synonyms: destroyed, obliterated, annihilated, bombed, devastated

Antonyms: protected, saved, preserved