Word.ws English Dictionary

nuke it from orbit

nuke it from orbit verb: to completely eliminate a dangerous or undesirable thing.

Verb

nuke it from orbit (third-person singular simple present nukes it from orbit, present participle nuking it from orbit, simple past and past participle nuked it from orbit)

  1. (humorous, informal, often) To completely eliminate a dangerous or undesirable thing.

Forms of nuke it from orbit

third-person singular presentnukes it from orbit
present participlenuking it from orbit
past participlenuked it from orbit
pastnuked it from orbit

Origin of nuke it from orbit

Alteration of dialog from the 1986 movie Aliens in which Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) proposes a solution to an infestation of dangerous creatures: "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

Questions about nuke it from orbit

What does nuke it from orbit mean?
Nuke it from orbit means to completely eliminate a dangerous or undesirable thing.
What part of speech is nuke it from orbit?
Nuke it from orbit is a verb.
What is the past tense of nuke it from orbit?
The past tense of nuke it from orbit is nuked it from orbit.

Words near nuke it from orbit in the dictionary

  1. Nukahivans
  2. nuke
  3. nuke and pave
  4. nuke families
  5. nuke family
  6. nuke it from orbit
  7. nuke it out
  8. nuke plant
  9. nuke plants
  10. nuke the fridge
  11. nukeable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nuke it from orbit (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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