fail-deadly

adj
/ˌfeɪlˈdɛdli/US

Etymology

From fail (verb) + deadly, modelled on fail-safe.

  1. inherited from dēadlīċe
  2. inherited from dedliche
  3. inherited from *dauþalīkaz — “deadly
  4. inherited from *dauþalīk
  5. inherited from dēadlīċ
  6. inherited from dedly
  7. compounded as fail-deadly — “fail + deadly

Definitions

  1. Of a nuclear weapons strategy

    Of a nuclear weapons strategy: encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack, even if the command-and-control infrastructure has been damaged by the enemy's first strike.

    • If one were to assume a more traditional Realist image of human fallibility, then one's confidence in the safety of the elaborate nuclear "fail deadly" deterrence order might not be so sanguine.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for fail-deadly. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA