From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englisharms raceˈarms race noun [countable usually singular] PMWEAPONthe competition between different countries to have a larger number of powerful weapons the nuclear arms race
Examples from the Corpus
arms race• Arms races sometimes culminate in extinction, and then a new arms race may begin back at square one.• All the assurances that the treaty would not inaugurate an arms race or cost the United States anything were brushed aside.• They can emphasise the danger of a new arms race.• A test ban that could not inspire confidence would undermine stability and might even provoke a new arms race.• They say that it could erode existing arms control agreements and lead to a new arms race.• the nuclear arms race• Further, the arms race between the superpowers has escalated still more.• Nevertheless, the arms race went on.• Scientists, the arms race and disarmament Who is responsible?nuclear arms race• Seversk was created in 1949, at the onset of the superpowers' nuclear arms race.• The Soviet Union tested its own hydrogen bomb within a year, and the nuclear arms race escalated further.• Halt the nuclear arms race, for one thing; stop the spread of nuclear weapons, for another. 