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 destructive nuclear capacity exceeding the amount needed to destroy an enemy.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/overkill>.
The term is attested from 1946"overkill." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 31 March. 2009.
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 shooters, starting with Doom, overkilling a character results in "gibbing" – the character exploding in a shower of gore.
Notes
{{Wiktionary|overkill}}
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