Word Study
overkill
OXFORD DICTIONARY
overkill, n. & v.
--n.
1 the amount by which destruction or the capacity for destruction exceeds what is necessary for victory or annihilation.
2 excess; excessive behaviour.
--v.tr. & intr. kill or destroy to a greater extent than necessary.
--n.
1 the amount by which destruction or the capacity for destruction exceeds what is necessary for victory or annihilation.
2 excess; excessive behaviour.
--v.tr. & intr. kill or destroy to a greater extent than necessary.
THESAURUS
overkill
aggrandizement, aggravated assault, aggression, amphibious attack, amplification, armed assault, assailing, assailment, assault, attack, ballyhoo, banzai attack, big talk, blitz, blitzkrieg, blowing up, breakthrough, burlesque, caricature, charge, counterattack, counteroffensive, coup de main, crippling attack, dead set at, descent on, dilatation, dilation, diversion, diversionary attack, drive, enhancement, enlargement, exaggerating, exaggeration, excess, exorbitance, expansion, extravagance, extreme, flank attack, frontal attack, gas attack, grandiloquence, head-on attack, heightening, huckstering, hyperbole, hyperbolism, infiltration, inflation, inordinacy, lightning attack, lightning war, magnification, mass attack, megadeath, mugging, offense, offensive, onset, onslaught, overabundance, overemphasis, overestimation, overflow, overmuch, overplus, overstatement, panzer warfare, plethora, prodigality, profuseness, puffery, puffing up, push, run against, run at, rush, sally, sensationalism, shock tactics, sortie, stretching, strike, superfluity, superlative, surfeit, surplus, surplusage, tall talk, touting, travesty, unprovoked assaultFor further exploring for "overkill" in Webster Dictionary Online