"preemptive strike" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "preemptive strikes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "preemptive strike (plural preemptive strikes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Salarians: Military Doctrine Codex entry",
          "text": "In every war the salarians have fought, they struck first and without warning. For the salarians, to know an enemy plans to attack and to let it happen is folly. To announce their own plans to attack is insanity. They find the human moral concepts of \"do not fire until fired upon\" and \"declare a war before prosecuting it\" incredibly naive. In defensive wars, they execute devastating preemptive strikes hours before the enemy's own attacks.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An attack launched as a defensive measure."
      ],
      "id": "en-preemptive_strike-en-noun-SYXrwEiU",
      "links": [
        [
          "attack",
          "attack"
        ],
        [
          "defensive",
          "defensive"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "anticipatory retaliation"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "frappe préventive"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "Praeventivschlag"
        },
        {
          "code": "fa",
          "lang": "Persian",
          "roman": "hamle-ye piš-dastâne",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "حملهٔ پیشدستانه"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "preemptive strike"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "preemptive strikes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "preemptive strike (plural preemptive strikes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "anticipatory retaliation"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Salarians: Military Doctrine Codex entry",
          "text": "In every war the salarians have fought, they struck first and without warning. For the salarians, to know an enemy plans to attack and to let it happen is folly. To announce their own plans to attack is insanity. They find the human moral concepts of \"do not fire until fired upon\" and \"declare a war before prosecuting it\" incredibly naive. In defensive wars, they execute devastating preemptive strikes hours before the enemy's own attacks.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An attack launched as a defensive measure."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "attack",
          "attack"
        ],
        [
          "defensive",
          "defensive"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "frappe préventive"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "Praeventivschlag"
    },
    {
      "code": "fa",
      "lang": "Persian",
      "roman": "hamle-ye piš-dastâne",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "حملهٔ پیشدستانه"
    }
  ],
  "word": "preemptive strike"
}