1957 N.Y. Times 2 Sept. 7/2 The military has come up with a new word–‘overkill’. This is the term for the surplus in nuclear weapons beyond the number believed to be necessary to demolish all key Soviet targets.

1959 Times 18 May 7/2 The Chiefs of Staff of the Navy and the Army..told Congress..that this ‘over-kill’ capacity is unnecessary.

1968 W. Ash Ride Paper Tiger xii. 191 There's no point in plastering a target which has already been demolished. Anyone carrying the weapons you do has to be a bit careful about the problem of overkill.

1984 New Statesman 16 Nov. 27/2 The third side is the sacred need for ‘balance’ as if balance in a world of insane nuclear overkill had any significance whatsoever.

1965 New Scientist 24 June 841/1 There is only a limited number of whales in the sea and the delegates must decide between an irrational short-term overkill or long-term conservation.

1974 J. D. Jennings in J. Billard World of Amer. Indian 41 (caption) Some experts say such overkills upset the ancient balance maintained when men killed only what they needed, and hastened extinction for species already imperilled by climate changes.

1985 Sci. Amer. Feb. 19/2 All we know of the economic system of the aboriginals does not provide for hunting large game. Nowhere in Australia does the archaeology yet support overkill.