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Definition of "overkill" []

  • Destructive nuclear capacity exceeding the amount needed to destroy an enemy. (noun)
  • Excessive killing. (noun)
  • An excess of what is necessary or appropriate for a particular end: "government overkill in dealing with dissent” ( Jesse Unruh). (noun)
  • To destroy (an enemy or enemy target) with more nuclear force than necessary. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "overkill" in a sentence
  • "Like Marcos, Mrs. Arroyo ran a campaign in 2004 to which the label overkill equally applies."
  • "But critical overkill is a very popular approach still to writing about books."
  • "Right well what I mean by it being overkill is that I don't think data recovery is a good enough reason, in that there are easier ways of recovering data without partitioning."