"terminate with extreme prejudice" meaning in English

See terminate with extreme prejudice in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: terminates with extreme prejudice [present, singular, third-person], terminating with extreme prejudice [participle, present], terminated with extreme prejudice [participle, past], terminated with extreme prejudice [past]
Etymology: 1960s, US military intelligence and CIA, used publicly in 1969, in news coverage of Green Beret Case, further popularized in 1979 movie Apocalypse Now. Play on the term “terminate with prejudice” when an employee’s employment is terminated, meaning “will not rehire employee to same position in future” (i.e., prejudiced against rehiring), hence “terminate definitively, i.e., kill”. Etymology templates: {{m|en|without prejudice}} without prejudice Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} terminate with extreme prejudice (third-person singular simple present terminates with extreme prejudice, present participle terminating with extreme prejudice, simple past and past participle terminated with extreme prejudice)
  1. (euphemistic, US) To murder; to assassinate. Wikipedia link: Apocalypse Now, termination of employment Tags: US, euphemistic Derived forms: tweep, extreme prejudice Related terms: with prejudice, without prejudice, wet work, assassination
    Sense id: en-terminate_with_extreme_prejudice-en-verb-PTWYmzN~ Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, English euphemisms

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for terminate with extreme prejudice meaning in English (2.8kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "without prejudice"
      },
      "expansion": "without prejudice",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "1960s, US military intelligence and CIA, used publicly in 1969, in news coverage of Green Beret Case, further popularized in 1979 movie Apocalypse Now. Play on the term “terminate with prejudice” when an employee’s employment is terminated, meaning “will not rehire employee to same position in future” (i.e., prejudiced against rehiring), hence “terminate definitively, i.e., kill”.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "terminates with extreme prejudice",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "terminating with extreme prejudice",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "terminated with extreme prejudice",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "terminated with extreme prejudice",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "terminate with extreme prejudice (third-person singular simple present terminates with extreme prejudice, present participle terminating with extreme prejudice, simple past and past participle terminated with extreme prejudice)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English euphemisms",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "tweep"
        },
        {
          "word": "extreme prejudice"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The government ordered the spies to be terminated with extreme prejudice: they did not want them to expose what they knew in a public trial."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1969 August 14, Terence Smith, “Details of Green Beret Case Are Reported in Saigon”, in The New York Times",
          "text": "...suggested that he either be isolated or ‘terminated with extreme prejudice.’ This term is said to be an intelligence euphemism for execution.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1979, Apocalypse Now",
          "text": "Colonel Lucas: ... When you find the Colonel, infiltrate his team by whatever means available and terminate the Colonel's command.\nWillard: Terminate the Colonel?\n...\nCivilian: Terminate with extreme prejudice.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To murder; to assassinate."
      ],
      "id": "en-terminate_with_extreme_prejudice-en-verb-PTWYmzN~",
      "links": [
        [
          "murder",
          "murder"
        ],
        [
          "assassinate",
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(euphemistic, US) To murder; to assassinate."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "with prejudice"
        },
        {
          "word": "without prejudice"
        },
        {
          "word": "wet work"
        },
        {
          "word": "assassination"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
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        "euphemistic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Apocalypse Now",
        "termination of employment"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "terminate with extreme prejudice"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "tweep"
    },
    {
      "word": "extreme prejudice"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "without prejudice"
      },
      "expansion": "without prejudice",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "1960s, US military intelligence and CIA, used publicly in 1969, in news coverage of Green Beret Case, further popularized in 1979 movie Apocalypse Now. Play on the term “terminate with prejudice” when an employee’s employment is terminated, meaning “will not rehire employee to same position in future” (i.e., prejudiced against rehiring), hence “terminate definitively, i.e., kill”.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "terminates with extreme prejudice",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "terminating with extreme prejudice",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "terminated with extreme prejudice",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "terminated with extreme prejudice",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "terminate with extreme prejudice (third-person singular simple present terminates with extreme prejudice, present participle terminating with extreme prejudice, simple past and past participle terminated with extreme prejudice)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "with prejudice"
    },
    {
      "word": "without prejudice"
    },
    {
      "word": "wet work"
    },
    {
      "word": "assassination"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English euphemisms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The government ordered the spies to be terminated with extreme prejudice: they did not want them to expose what they knew in a public trial."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1969 August 14, Terence Smith, “Details of Green Beret Case Are Reported in Saigon”, in The New York Times",
          "text": "...suggested that he either be isolated or ‘terminated with extreme prejudice.’ This term is said to be an intelligence euphemism for execution.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1979, Apocalypse Now",
          "text": "Colonel Lucas: ... When you find the Colonel, infiltrate his team by whatever means available and terminate the Colonel's command.\nWillard: Terminate the Colonel?\n...\nCivilian: Terminate with extreme prejudice.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To murder; to assassinate."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "murder",
          "murder"
        ],
        [
          "assassinate",
          "assassinate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(euphemistic, US) To murder; to assassinate."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "euphemistic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Apocalypse Now",
        "termination of employment"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "terminate with extreme prejudice"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 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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