terminate with extreme prejudice
Kill with authorization
To terminate with extreme prejudice is to kill someone, especially as an authorized assassination.
The phrase originated in CIA and military jargon, where "terminate" meant end an agent's employment and "extreme prejudice" signaled the permanent kind—death rather than dismissal.
It gained wide recognition through the 1979 film *Apocalypse Now*: Your mission is to terminate the colonel's command... with extreme prejudice.
Now often used loosely or humorously for any decisive elimination: The board terminated his contract with extreme prejudice.
- wet workEspionage term for assassination
- exterminateDestroy completely, every one
- assassinateMurder a prominent figure
- clean killDeath without suffering
- coded languageCommunication using concealed meanings
kill · covert · clandestine · off the books · plausible deniability · cover story · execution · neutralize · black ops · eliminate · liquidate · double entendre · collateral damage · take out · dispatch · Apocalypse Now · annihilate · eradicate
terminate, termination, terminal, terminus, terminable, interminable, terminator, extreme, extremely