count coup

American  

[kaunt koo] / ˌkaʊnt ˈku /

verb (used without object)

1. (among Indigenous warriors of the Great Plains) to earn the highest honor in battle by surviving unharmed in such close proximity to an enemy as to touch them.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

count coup

To be the first to count coup on a fallen enemy was high honor.

From Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian Women by Sabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand)

“But it’s something to be proud of—and one doesn’t count coup for making a lot of money!”

From Sand Doom by Leinster, Murray

An expression often used in these pages, and which is so familiar to one who has lived much with Indians as to need no explanation, is the phrase to count coup.

From Blackfoot Lodge Tales The Story of a Prairie People by Grinnell, George Bird

She, for her part, could count "coup" to a creditable extent, and among the latest scalps which she had hung to her dainty twenty-inch girdle was that of our friend Holmes.

From The Sign of the Spider by Mitford, Bertram

A few old men and most of the boys ran out on the plain to meet them, and count coup on the captured ponies.

From White Otter by Gregor, Elmer Russell