PREEMPTIVE STRIKE Definition & Meaning

preemptive strike

noun

Military.

an attack against an enemy in response to an obvious threat of attack by that enemy: because preemptive strikes are prompted more by clearly imminent danger than by speculation, they generally are considered acceptable in international law.

preemptive strike

A first-strike attack with nuclear weapons carried out to destroy an enemy's capacity to respond. A preemptive strike is based on the assumption that the enemy is planning an imminent attack.

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of preemptive strike¹

First recorded in 1955–60

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Officials even launched a highly publicized offensive against contraband goods from Asia, raiding a shopping center in downtown Mexico City and seizing thousands of toys and other products — an operation widely seen as a preemptive strike to discourage Trump from trying to punish Mexico for serving as a conduit for Chinese merchandise headed to the United States.

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As reformers worked in January 1975 to draft legislation that would have changed Idaho from an elected coroner system to one headed by a state medical examiner, funeral home directors organized a preemptive strike.

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Newsom’s preemptive strike signals the return of the hostile relationship between Democratic-controlled California and the Trump administration.

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Newsom’s preemptive strike signals the return of the hostile relationship between Democratic-controlled California and the Trump administration that was a hallmark of the Republican’s first term.

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Consider Iraq: In 2000, per CNN, Trump was advocating a preemptive strike.

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