Phrase guide

terminate with extreme prejudice

verb · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

verb

Meaning 1

To murder; to assassinate.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US, euphemistic

Examples

  • 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.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

First appears c. 1969. Derives from US military intelligence and CIA documents, in news coverage of the Green Beret Case, and further popularized in the movie Apocalypse Now (1979). A 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.