tout à coup

• IPA^(key): /tu.t‿a ku/

• Audio

  (file)

tout à coup

1. all of a sudden, out of the blue
   • 1916, “Verdun, on ne passe pas!”, performed by Eugène Joullot and Jack Cazoll:

     Mais tout à coup, le coq gaulois claironne: Cocorico, debout petits soldats!

     But out of the blue, the Gallic rooster trumpets: cock-a-doodle-do, arise little soldiers!

• “coup”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.