coup de grâce
[ kooduh grahs ]
/ kudə ˈgrɑs /
noun, plural coups de grâce [kooduh grahs] /kudə ˈgrɑs/. French.
a death blow, especially one delivered mercifully to end suffering.
any finishing or decisive stroke.
RELATED CONTENT
RELATED WORDS
Nearby words
- coup d'etat,
- coup d'oeil,
- coup d'état,
- coup de foudre,
- coup de grace,
- coup de main,
- coup de maître,
- coup de poing,
- coup de théâtre,
- coup injury of brain
Origin of coup de grâce
literally, blow of mercy
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for coup de grace
coup de grâce
/ French (ku də ɡrɑs) /
noun plural coups de grâce (ku də ɡrɑs)
a mortal or finishing blow, esp one delivered as an act of mercy to a sufferer
a final or decisive stroke
Word Origin for coup de grâce
literally: blow of mercy
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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coup de grace
1690s, from French coup de grâce, literally "stroke of grace;" the merciful death-blow that ends another's suffering (see coup).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
coup de grâce
[ (kooh duh grahs) ]
The final blow: “He had been getting deeper and deeper in debt; the fates delivered the coup de grâce when he died.” The phrase is French for “stroke of mercy.” It originally referred to the merciful stroke that put a fatally wounded person out of his misery or to the shot delivered to the head of a prisoner after he had faced a firing squad.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.