the.com/first strike

means A preemptive attack launched to disable an enemy before they can strike you, especially a decisive opening blow meant to win a conflict outright.

from The phrase hardened into its modern menace during the Cold War, where 'first strike' and 'first-strike capability' became grim technical jargon for a nuclear attack powerful enough to destroy an enemy's ability to retaliate. 'Strike' itself goes back to Old English 'strican,' meaning to stroke or rub, which slid over centuries into the sense of striking a blow. The military pairing of 'first' with 'strike' is older than nukes — generals have always prized the advantage of hitting first — but the atomic age is what turned the phrase into a doctrine, and eventually into shorthand for any preemptive move, in boardrooms and chessboards alike.