Decker: I'm afraid we're going to have to liberate George. Carnagle: By "liberate", you mean "liquidate"? When death or impending death is referred to only in code words, which becomes chilling when the audience realizes what they are referring to.
Usually used by sinister conspiracies, powerful gangsters, Dystopian bureaucrats see also Double Speak , genocidal maniacs , Paths of Inspiration , or Scary Dogmatic Aliens. Occasionally also invoked by "good guy" operations, too spy agencies, etc. In some cases, such as with a sick dog needing to be euthanized or a vicious sentient drawing about to be defeated, the words "destroyed" or "erased" may be used, not as a euphemism, but rather because the word "killed" is insufficient.
Usually refers to those who have suffered a Fate Worse than Death , or an individual who has been killed and wiped from all records. Or they just don't acknowledge them as people to begin with.
This is similar to Never Say "Die" , but isn't associated with censorship; violent deaths will be shown, or someone will explain the real meaning of the euphemism that is, if it's necessary to do so, since in most cases the speaker will use a tone of voice that makes it clear.
It's also the supertrope of Trouble Entendre and Released to Elsewhere. These terms are particularly susceptible to the euphemism treadmill; as people forget that terms like "execute" and "liquidate" were ever euphemisms in the first place, they need to come up with more and more baroque ways of talking around the subject. The opposite of this would be No Longer with Us. Sometimes used in conjunction with Technical Euphemism.
