nuke

Everyday

1. (informal) A nuke is a nuclear weapon, a bomb of enormous power. tree →
2. (informal) To nuke a place is to attack it with nuclear weapons. tree →
3. (slang) To nuke food is to heat it in a microwave. tree →
4. (slang) To nuke something can mean to destroy or delete it completely, for example in a game or on a computer. tree →

In the lessons

In news and history (the Cold War, Hiroshima) it is a serious word; in everyday slang it is jokey: «nuke the pizza».

Examples

• Some countries have nukes. tree →
• Nukes were used only twice in war, in 1945. tree →
• Just nuke the leftovers for two minutes. tree →
• I accidentally nuked all my saved files. tree →
• The Cold War was a time of fear about nukes. tree →
• In the game, he nuked the whole base. tree →

Note

Informal; in formal writing say «nuclear weapon». Past: nuked. The microwave sense is a joke: microwaves are not nuclear and do not make food radioactive.