coup d'essai
Americannoun
plural
coups d'essaiEtymology
Origin of coup d'essai
Literally, “trial stroke”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I do not think my book was a bad coup d'essai.
From What I Remember, Volume 2 by Trollope, Thomas Adolphus
It is the Hartley coup d'essai in hospitality in the county, and there is a widespread interest manifested as to how they will do it.
From Doctor Cupid by Broughton, Rhoda
My factotum sat up half the night skinning, but it was his first coup d'essai.
From Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 1 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
It would be not much more just to take Roderick as Smollett's deliberate presentment of himself than to apply the same construction to Marryat's not very dissimilar, but more unlucky, coup d'essai of Frank Mildmay.
From The English Novel by Saintsbury, George
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
