coup de grâce

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Late 17th century. Borrowed from French coup de grâce (“finishing blow”). Originally referring to a merciful stroke putting a fatally wounded person out of misery or to the shot delivered to the head of a prisoner after facing a firing squad.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /kuː də ɡɹɑs/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • (hyperforeign) IPA(key): /kuː də ɡɹɑː/

Noun

coup de grâce (plural coups de grâce)

  1. A final blow or shot given to kill a wounded person or animal.
    Coordinate term: mercy killing
    • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 50:
      After we had row'd, or rather driven about a League and a Half, as we reckon'd it, a raging Wave, Mountain-like, came rolling a-ſtern of us, and plainly bad us expect the Coup-de-Grace.
    • 1889, Ambrose Bierce, The Coup de Grâce:
      The expression of his face was an appeal; his eyes were full of prayer. […] For what, indeed? For that which we accord to even the meanest creature without sense to demand it, denying it only to the wretched of our own race: for the blessed release, the rite of uttermost compassion, the coup de grâce.
    • 2019 March 6, Drachinifel, 30:36 from the start, in The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!‎, archived from the original on 4 July 2022:
      […] they just went "Right, activate radar, hello everybody, we can see you, you can't see us", and plastered everything in 14-and-16-inch gunfire until everything was broken, burning, and not able to fire back, and then they popped out for the coup de grâce.
  2. (by extension) A remarkable finishing action.

Usage notes

Some speakers, aware that some final consonants are dropped in French, drop the final /s/ sound in grâce even though it is pronounced in French, making it sound like French coup de gras (“strike of fat”).

Translations

See also

French

Etymology

Literally, “strike of mercy”.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ku də ɡʁas/, /ku də ɡʁɑs/
  • Audio (FR)(file)

Noun

coup de grâce m (plural coups de grâce)

  1. finishing blow, coup de grâce

Descendants
  • → English: coup de grâce
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