Overkill is far more force or effort than the job needed. Sheer overkill, a bit of overkill, marketing overkill.
The word came from nuclear strategy, where overkill meant the capacity to destroy a target several times over, which was a real and much-debated feature of the arsenals. It has since softened into a mild joke about doing too much.
1nounoverkillFar more force or effort than the job needed.
“Hiring a lawyer to fight a parking ticket seems like overkill.”
overkill is an excess.
Middle English
killen
English
kill
English, today
overkill
Built from
From over- + kill. kill comes from Middle English killen, kyllen, cullen (“to strike, beat, cut”), of obscure origin. Cognate with Scots kele, keil (“to kill”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA