Editing Overkill (term)

{{Short description|Use of excessive force that goes further than is necessary to achieve its goal}}
'''Overkill''' is the use of excessive force or action that goes further than what is necessary to achieve its goal. It may be a literal term referring to physical damage, though it is also used in colloquial conversation as a [[metaphor]].

==Nuclear weapons==
''Overkill'' is especially used to refer to a [[nuclear weapon|destructive nuclear capacity]] exceeding the amount needed to destroy an enemy.<ref name="EOP, K1">http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/overkill>.</ref>

The term is attested from 1946<ref name="EOP, K2">"overkill." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 31 March. 2009. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/overkill>.</ref> and was in common use during the [[Cold War]] era, referring to the [[arms race]] between the United States and the [[Soviet Union]]. Both nations possess more than enough nuclear weapons to destroy one another many times over&nbsp;– nuclear overkill.
The term for this was "pounding the rubble" or, as military officers sometimes joked, "pounding the [[ruble]]". Overkill colloquially refers either to use of force or weapons or to satiate the desire to humiliate a rival.  In Spanish, "overkill" is referred to as "matanza excesiva".

==In video games==
Overkill is a common feature implemented in many [[video games]], typically representing the fact that the damage a single attack inflicted on an enemy or player character far exceeded the character's remaining health points. In many [[first-person shooter]]s, starting with ''[[Doom (1993 video game)|Doom]]'', overkilling a character results in "[[Gib (video gaming)|gibbing]]"&nbsp;– the character exploding in a shower of [[wikt:gore|gore]].

==Notes==
{{Wiktionary|overkill}}
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Slang]]
[[Category:Violence]]
[[Category:1940s neologisms]]
[[Category:English words]]


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