Definition of "nuke" []

• A nuclear device or weapon. (noun)
• A nuclear-powered electric generating plant. (noun)
• To attack with nuclear weapons. (verb-transitive)
• To heat in a microwave oven: "I obtained this soup by nuking one cup of water and mixing that with . . . bouillon” ( Judy Markey). (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.

• "Maybe it's time someone asked General Petraeus if losing New York City to a nuke is a price worth paying for our glorious victory in Iraq."
• "For more than an hour, the former GOP nominee alternated between cracking some well-worn jokes from his two presidential campaigns and listening to the concerns of his constituents, one of whom demanded that McCain "nuke" the health care plan entirely."
• "I think a drone strike might be allowable if we were taking out a nuke that al-Qaeda might transport, w/collateral damage to (say) a U.S. citizen in league with them; but really, one nuke is not an existential threat."