When we microwave in our house we say we're going to "zap it". What do you say?

Nuke it.

why do we do this? Is it an american thing?
- I think it's because microwaves use, well, microwave radiation
- Yes, from a general misunderstanding of how microwave ovens work, and what "radiation" was during the 1960s and 70s.
  
  https://kitchenpearls.com/why-do-we-say-nuke-for-microwave/
- Canadian here. I also "nuke it".
That's what my house says too lol

Let's excite these water molecules until they vibrate so hard it generates heat that transfers to surrounding atoms

heat itself being the average kinetic energy of said vibrating molecules makes the heat part of that sentence redundant. Now make me a sandwich
- Abra cadabra, you are now a sandwich.
  
  I’ll show myself out.
- Molecules can also vibrate not hard enough to generate enough heat to warm their surroundings though.
  
  Here, I made a roasted goat testicle marinated in a tuna eyeball reduction topped with lettuce, tomatoes, olives, onions, uncooked rice, and taint shavings sammich. Bone apple titties

When I worked at McDonald's in 2015, we called it Q-ing. That's what the official term was. We got in trouble for calling it anything else.

Are you sure it wasn't "queuing?" As in, "I'm queuing up some food to be cooked for our queue of orders."
- Nope, it was written "Q-ing" on the "Q-ing Oven" itself, as well as in the training materials and manuals!
  
  Edit: here's the manual for it!

Generally "nuke it" but occasionally zap make an appearance, microwave as a verb, and sometimes me-crow-wa-vay if I'm feeling extra

I've also used "nuke" but recently "irradiate" has been funnier.
- Ooh, I'll try that one. Tbh, nuke isn't said for the funny. It's just what it was called when I was a kid. I never really considered it as a term until I was well into adulthood lol

When I microwave something I generally say that I'm microwaving it.

I use Nuke.

We speak Mandarin at home and microwave in Mandarin is 微波 "way bo" (literally means "micro wave"). To "microwave" as a verb usually gets shortened to the first character in colloquial speak. We 微 "way" our leftovers.

微波 means microwave as in that particular frequency range on the electromagnetic spectrum. When referring to the kitchen appliance as a noun, we specifically say 微波炉 "way bo lu" which means "microwave stove."

Additional fun fact: If you think it sounds like Weibo the website, you're right. It has almost the same pronounciation but has a tonal difference on the second character. Weibo means "micro blog," same first character but the second character is 博 which is a loan word for blog.

We say "ugh, there is too much stuff in front of the microwave, do you mind eating it cold?"

And I think that's beautiful.

I feel that. I eat so much stuff cold.

Activate the magnetron!

Nuke it

Mick-rowave. Based on how Jen pronounces it in Bob's Burgers

Meek row wah vay

Put it in the science oven!

I say "zap it" myself. idk it just rolls off the tongue really nice

Funnily enough, there is no single word for this in German of all languages. You just say "heat something up in the microwave". The standard verb form would be "mikrowellieren", but I've never heard anyone say that.