mutually assured destruction

teachers call it MAD
when two countries come to an understanding that if one country launches an attack the other will retaliate with equal force

when jenifer gillbert walks into a class room

by Doughboy September 2, 2003

mutually assured destruction

Difficult to define exactly, but it's not the actual *name* of a situation or doctrine. Rather, it describes the outcome of a given action in the circumstances:

In the case of the US and USSR, their shared determination to retaliate to an attack by the other - given the size of their nuclear arsenals - would've assured mutual destruction.

by Richter September 20, 2003

mutually assured douchebaggery

The point at which you and another person get so passive-aggressive to each other that it doesn't matter who started it, because at this point you're both just plain douchebags.

Person A turns down the thermostat. Person B waits for A to leave, turns it back up. Repeat until one has to leave out of frustration. This is the point of mutually assured douchebaggery.

by thatguy20 July 8, 2012

mutually assured destruction

The outrightly suicidal strategy of nations protecting themselves from nuclear (or, in more recent days, chemical or biological) attack by preparing enough weapons to reduce the attacking country to rubble even as they are themselves wiped out.

Basically, if you're going to be screwed over, make sure the rest of the world is, too.

During the Cold War, the US and the USSR built massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons while following a strategy of mutually assured destruction

by Sparky August 30, 2003

mutually assured destruction

(MAD) The Cold War strategic doctrine which made all-out nuclear war the only possibility for war between the super-power blocs (US & USSR). Like it or not (and who would?), it worked, at least in preventing the use nuclear weapons in war.

by lazarus51 August 31, 2003

mutually assured destruction

The almost certain scenario that would occur after nuclear war. It says that the opposing forces would be utterly anihilated, leaving the Earth an uninhabitable, radioactive wasteland.

The only result of nuclear war, Mr. President, is mutually assured destruction.

by ZephyrAnima August 30, 2003

mutually assured destruction

a stalemate in a war where both (or more) sides have wordweapons of mass destruction/word.

by Anonymous September 10, 2003