"signature strike" meaning in English

See signature strike in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: signature strikes [plural]
Etymology: From the justification for such strikes being suspicious patterns of behavior thought to be "signatures" of terrorists. Head templates: {{en-noun}} signature strike (plural signature strikes)
  1. A military attack which is based on detecting suspicious activity rather than confirmed intelligence of terrorism. Categories (topical): Military
    Sense id: en-signature_strike-en-noun-o23ynPBl Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for signature strike meaning in English (2.5kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "From the justification for such strikes being suspicious patterns of behavior thought to be \"signatures\" of terrorists.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "signature strikes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "signature strike (plural signature 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"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Military",
          "orig": "en:Military",
          "parents": [
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2013, Joseph Pugliese, State Violence and the Execution of Law, page 196",
          "text": "This group of civilians was marked as displaying suspicious behavior and consequently became the victime of a signature strike that killed twenty-three men and wounded twelve others, including a woman and three children.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Peter L. Bergen, Daniel Rothenberg, Drone Wars, page 46",
          "text": "The United States does not disclose what behaviors justify a signature strike, nor does it provide any guidance on this issue.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Avery Plaw, Matthew S. Fricker, Carlos Colon, The Drone Debate: A Primer on the U.S. Use of Unmanned Aircraft Outside Conventional Battlefields, page 251",
          "text": "For example, former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke responded to the news of the January 15, 2015, signature strike in Pakistan as follows, \"President Obama said he was going to stop them [i.e., signature strikes], and clearly he didn't.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Jack McDonald, Ethics, Law and Justifying Targeted Killings: The Obama Administration at War",
          "text": "This uncertainty is at the heart of signature strike targeting. Attacks that cannot determine whether a target is legitimate are illegal in IHL thanks to the ban on indiscriminate attacks in Article 51 of Additional Protocol I (1977).",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A military attack which is based on detecting suspicious activity rather than confirmed intelligence of terrorism."
      ],
      "id": "en-signature_strike-en-noun-o23ynPBl",
      "links": [
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ],
        [
          "attack",
          "attack"
        ],
        [
          "suspicious",
          "suspicious"
        ],
        [
          "activity",
          "activity"
        ],
        [
          "intelligence",
          "intelligence"
        ],
        [
          "terrorism",
          "terrorism"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "signature strike"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "From the justification for such strikes being suspicious patterns of behavior thought to be \"signatures\" of terrorists.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "signature strikes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "signature strike (plural signature strikes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Military"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2013, Joseph Pugliese, State Violence and the Execution of Law, page 196",
          "text": "This group of civilians was marked as displaying suspicious behavior and consequently became the victime of a signature strike that killed twenty-three men and wounded twelve others, including a woman and three children.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Peter L. Bergen, Daniel Rothenberg, Drone Wars, page 46",
          "text": "The United States does not disclose what behaviors justify a signature strike, nor does it provide any guidance on this issue.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Avery Plaw, Matthew S. Fricker, Carlos Colon, The Drone Debate: A Primer on the U.S. Use of Unmanned Aircraft Outside Conventional Battlefields, page 251",
          "text": "For example, former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke responded to the news of the January 15, 2015, signature strike in Pakistan as follows, \"President Obama said he was going to stop them [i.e., signature strikes], and clearly he didn't.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Jack McDonald, Ethics, Law and Justifying Targeted Killings: The Obama Administration at War",
          "text": "This uncertainty is at the heart of signature strike targeting. Attacks that cannot determine whether a target is legitimate are illegal in IHL thanks to the ban on indiscriminate attacks in Article 51 of Additional Protocol I (1977).",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A military attack which is based on detecting suspicious activity rather than confirmed intelligence of terrorism."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ],
        [
          "attack",
          "attack"
        ],
        [
          "suspicious",
          "suspicious"
        ],
        [
          "activity",
          "activity"
        ],
        [
          "intelligence",
          "intelligence"
        ],
        [
          "terrorism",
          "terrorism"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "signature strike"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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