English · Idiom Candidate

nuke the fridge

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

to ruin something with an unrealistic or implausible element

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

làm hỏng một điều gì đó với một yếu tố không thực tế hoặc không hợp lý

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to destroy a refrigerator with a nuclear weapon

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The movie's plot was going well until they nuked the fridge with that absurd twist

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “nuke the fridge” mean?

to ruin something with an unrealistic or implausible element Literally: to destroy a refrigerator with a nuclear weapon

Is “nuke the fridge” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.